Visalia police identify 43-year-old bank robbery suspect shot and killed by officers
VISALIA, Calif. (KFSN) -- Visalia police have identified the bank robbery suspect they shot and killed on Wednesday as 43-year-old Joshua Van Machado of Hanford.
This is a breaking news update. Our original story follows below.
Shortly after receiving the first calls of a robbery at Tri Counties Bank at around 11:30 Wednesday morning, Visalia Police dispatchers gave responding officers a description of the suspect and his vehicle.
The man left the bank with an unknown amount of cash, and it was reported that he might have had a gun in his coat pocket.
"Suspect's going to be a taller male with a beanie that's getting into a white pickup," a dispatcher says in scanner traffic Action News obtained from Broadcastify.
A few minutes later, a patrol officer spotted a truck matching the description near Santa Fe and Walnut, and pulled the suspect over a few blocks to the west, near Court and Laura.
Other officers also arrived on scene for the felony traffic stop.
"The suspect got out of the vehicle," Visalia Police Chief Jason Salazar said. "He turned and faced the officers at which time they observed that he had a black handgun in his possession. As the suspect began to move the handgun towards their direction, the
officers fired several rounds at the suspect after giving him commands to drop the firearm."
The man dropped to the ground after being hit, but Salazar says he still had the gun in his hand.
Officers, including a hostage negotiator, told him to drop it and surrender, but they say he didn't listen to those commands.
"At one point the suspect picked the gun up again, pulled it up towards the air, and additional shots were fired by the officers," Salazar said.
But Salazar says the man still wouldn't let go of the gun, so officers had to open fire a third time.
"At some point he again moved the firearm towards the officers at which time additional shots were fired," Salazar said. "At that point the suspect was no longer responding."
Officers detained the suspect and gave him CPR, but he died.
Salazar doesn't believe the suspect ever fired his weapon, which was found at the scene.
He says it was a tragic incident, but he's thankful no one else was hurt.
"I will say it was excellent work on the part of the officers that were involved," he said. "A scary incident at the bank with an armed robbery that occurred there, but good work by the patrol officers who were able to identify the suspect vehicle, see him, get in and be able to make the stop."
The suspect has not yet been identified by police.
Chief Salazar says all six of the officers who fired their weapons had their body-worn cameras activated, so those will be reviewed as part of the investigations into the incident.
