Sonoma County deputy shoots and kills man with rock, hammer

SANTA ROSA, Calif. (AP) — A Sonoma County deputy shot and killed a 36-year-old man who led officers on a wild foot chase through rural wine country before threatening them with a claw hammer, tiller and rocks, authorities said.

The Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office on Monday identified the man who died in the Friday morning encounter as David Pelaez Chavez of Lower Lake.

In a statement, they said Chavez was chased off two properties by armed homeowners, stole and crashed a truck and utility vehicle after driving them through vineyard gates and property fences, and finally fled on bare feet through heavy brush and up steep hillsides.

The two deputies caught up with him at a creek bed, where he held a claw hammer and tiller in one hand and a large river rock in the other, police said. They ordered him to drop the items but he “continued to yell nonsensical statements” and threatened to throw the rock.

He dropped the rock, but quickly leaned down to pick up another large river rock, “and made a movement that indicated he was threatening to hurl the rock at the deputy,” the statement said. That’s when one of the two deputies fired three rounds, killing Chavez.

Santa Rosa Sgt. Christopher Mahurin said Chavez did not throw a rock in the moments before he was shot.

Mahurin said investigators are trying to find out why he drove from his home in Lower Lake and parked in Geyserville around 5:30 a.m. Friday. Chavez did not appear to have any work or personal ties to the area, he said.

The sheriff’s office said Chavez told one of the homeowners to shoot him, according to the statement.

Santa Rosa police and the Sonoma County district attorney’s office will investigate the shooting. Both deputies are on paid leave.

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This story has been corrected to clarify that only one deputy shot the suspect, not “deputies.”