Minutes before three Sanger police officers fired multiple times at a man behind the Sanger Auto Zone, investigators say he made a threatening call to 9-1-1.
"During the original call, there were statements made by him about him being armed," Chris Curtice of the Fresno County Sheriff's Office said.
The call was traced to nearby N Street.
As officers arrived hey saw the suspect running away, so they decided to pursue him on foot.
Alex Morales was at work when one of the officers passed by him holding a gun.
"He told all of us to run inside, so we closed the door and locked ourselves inside and we just saw him standing here with a gun," Morales said.
After several minutes had passed Morales and his co-workers came back outside assuming the area was safe.
"We didn't see anything, and we came back and all we heard were gunshots... about 30 to 40 gunshots" Morales said.
Another witness claims he too counted the same number of shots, which startled him, considering how many people were in the area at the time.
"Was it pretty scary?" Action News asked witness Carlos Florez.
"Yeah, because if they shoot like that way, they could've shot somebody or my friends you know?" Florez said.
According to detectives the officers lost sight of the man, then found him hiding in some bushes.
Following a brief exchange with the suspect they felt threatened enough to shoot.
"They were giving him commands to do things. He was refusing those commands, and at some point, there was some action taken by the suspect and the officers felt they needed to shoot," Curtice said.
Investigators have yet to reveal who the man is, or whether or not he was armed.
In the meantime, people who live in the area say the whole incident makes them feel uneasy.
