1 man dead after an officer-involved shooting in Central Fresno
FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- UPDATE: Authorities have identified the suspect as 55-year-old Fred Perez of Fresno.
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Police gunfire interrupted a violent attack inside a central Fresno apartment Wednesday morning and police believe they saved one life while ending another.
Two officers opened fire inside the central Fresno apartment, and at least one officer had a body camera recording the entire confrontation. The video is part of an ongoing investigation, so Chief Jerry Dyer tells us he can't release it yet.
But in the video, Dyer says you could hear one of the officers who shot the suspect say the man was still stabbing his victim even after being hit with a less lethal weapon.
Grainy cell phone video shows us how it all came to an end.
Paramedics wheeled the suspect away from his apartment complex on Belmont and Weber Avenues after police shot him to death. It began an hour earlier when neighbors heard the man overpowering a woman and called 911. "It was reported that a male was beating a female and a second call came in that a female was screaming for help," said Chief Dyer.
Talio Galindo lives about ten doors down from Apartment 36, where the violence erupted. He says a loud argument woke him up, then gunfire drew him outside. "I told my wife to stay inside," said Galindo, who later took the cell phone video. "I came out and saw the police, it was serious. I came back in. I didn't want to get involved."
Galindo says the man has a history of arguing with neighbors and court records show he has a history of violence, including two attempted murder charges 15 years ago. In this case, police say the woman was still screaming when they got there, so they broke a window to get a better vantage point.
They saw the man armed with a knife, blood all over his body.
Chief Jerry Dyer says the shooting that ended it was absolutely justified and lifesaving. "The suspect was in the process of actually stabbing the victim when the officers fired at the suspect," he said.
The coroner's office hasn't yet officially identified the suspect who was killed because they haven't notified his family yet, so we're not identifying him, even though we know we know who he is.
Watch the full press conference above:
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