yourcentralvalley com

Sheriff confirms Porterville shooting suspect is dead - ‘He got run over’

Dom McAndrew

2–3 minutes

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PORTERVILLE, Calif. (KSEE/KGPE) – The suspect who the Tulare County Sheriff’s Office says shot and killed a detective on Thursday was himself killed following an incident that began when an eviction notice served at a home in Porterville escalated into a shooting.

The Sheriff of Tulare County, Mike Boudreaux, confirmed in a press conference on Thursday evening that the suspect, 59-year-old David Morales, was run over by a Bearcat armored vehicle operated by the Kern County Sheriff’s Office, following an hours-long standoff between him and law enforcement.

“We intentionally ran him over…you shoot at cops, we’re going to run you over,” said Sheriff Boudreaux. “He got run over; he got what he deserved.”

According to the Tulare County Sheriff’s Office, the incident began when their office arrived at a home at 1713 W Brian Avenue at around 10:20 a.m. to serve an eviction notice. The person inside then began shooting at the officers who served the notice.

The detective was among the members of law enforcement who responded to the report of shots fired, resulting in him being shot in the head. The detective was pronounced dead at 11:57 a.m. at Sierra View Medical Center in Porterville.

Sheriff Boudreaux says the suspect, David Morales, was known to Porterville Police and that he had been renting the property. He had stopped paying rent, which prompted the eviction notice visit.

“This is not normal, this is not what reasonable people do,” said Sheriff Mike Boudreaux.

A witness to the shooting in Porterville showed YourCentralValley.com a 10-second video that included 12 gunshots and at least four officers taking cover behind a parked car on the neighborhood street.

“They’re scared,” said Andres Infante with Kern County Crime Streams. “They don’t really see this happening here. They’re not used to this…you just never know what people’s intentions really are.”

Tulare County Sheriff Mike Boudreaux said the detective who was killed in the standoff was a father with a pregnant wife. The detective has since been identified by the sheriff’s office.

The fact that the police stated they knew of him before hand says it all.

Of course the news will never report that part of it.

I had a local officer one time tell me that I could ask about potential tenants and he would simply state whether they had worked with the person or not.

A big guess. The police knew him, which means he had very likely been arrested multiple times and released back out into society, which is very frustrating to the police who are trying to enforce the law.

Well now he shot a cop and now he is not going to be released as soon as he hits the county jail.

Here's a pic of a Bearcat.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lenco_BearCat

Another sad reminder how evictions can go bad in an instant.

Be safe!