Man holding assault rifle confronts officers at California police station
By ABC7.com staff
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RIALTO, California (KABC) — Video shows the moment a man armed with an assault rifle gains access to a secure area of a Rialto police station Monday just before an officer opened fire.
The incident was reported just after 5 p.m. at the Rialto police station at Willow and Rialto avenues.
Police say the suspect entered a secure area of the station armed with the rifle. He was confronted and then shot by officers.
In the video, the suspect is seen following a Rialto officer through the gates of the police station into the parking lot.
He then gets out of his car with a rifle and approaches the officer’s car door. The suspect doesn’t shoot, but instead, runs away only to turn around and raise the weapon again.
By this time, the officer was out of his patrol vehicle and opened fire, striking the suspect several times.
The suspect fell to the ground but survived. Officers then poured out of the building to help.
He was taken to a local hospital. An update on his condition was not immediately available.
“The brazenness of criminals in today’s society is just overwhelming to me,” said Rialto Police Chief Mark Kling during an evening press conference on Monday. “I’ve been doing this for 37 years and in 37 years, I would never ever thought that somebody would come in armed with some type of weapon and assaulted our police officers, and I think what is so concerning is it’s just not here inside Rialto. We’re talking everywhere.”
A civilian employee, a woman seen in the video wearing a brown shirt, was outside the police station at the time of the incident waiting to pick up food from the officer and saw the gunman approach.
“The good news for the Rialto Police Department is we are in the process of designing and building a brand new police facility, which will actually handle all the safety issues,” said Kling.
The potential attack highlights how vulnerable officers on the job.
“We are becoming more and more vulnerable to brazen attacks every single day, and not just here in the city of Rialto,” said Kling. “Law enforcement officers, both county deputies and also municipal police, not only throughout the state but the country, are being faced with the challenges that we never, ever thought that we would ever have to be faced with, and it’s got to stop.”
There were no reports of police officers being injured in the incident.
A high-caliber rifle was still present on the ground in the station parking lot as officers investigated. It’s unclear if the gun was real or if it was loaded.
The San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department is now investigating.
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