Surveillance video captures the moments leading up to officer involved shooting in Atwater
ATWATER, Calif. (KFSN) -- A woman living on the first floor called 911 saying she heard gunfire overhead. That is when a business owner across the street saw a large group of officer mobilize, then a second wave of shots.
"We heard them planning it all out, even before they went there," said Baltazar Barocio.
Barocio was tending to customers Tuesday when he noticed an abnormal number of officers gathered across the street.
"Me and the customer were like what's really going on?" said Barocio.
Moments before, someone called police, saying a shooter was firing shots on the second floor of this apartment complex from the Winton Gardens Apartment Complex.
You can see officers, putting together a plan of attack. The facts that follow are murky.
"I'm not sure how it escalated because the investigation is still ongoing, at which time the suspect came out of the room, an exchange of gunfire occurred," said Chief Sammy Joseph.
Witnesses say they heard four to five shots. At this point, investigators cannot tell us who fired what.
"We heard them yelling at each other, get the shield, we seen the shotgun ready to go, we started looking back over there again thinking something was going down," said Barocio.
The suspect was the only one hit and died at the hospital. Detectives say he had a handgun.
"Somebody messed up--for the officers to do planning like that, somebody's up to no good."
The Merced County Sheriff's office has taken over the investigation. The two officers involved were not hurt and both have been with the department for 12 years.
