FRESNO (KMJ) — An officer involved shooting on Fresno’s Orange and El Monte has put a man in critical condition in the hospital.
The call reached Fresno Police just before 11am Thursday morning. The woman who made the call told dispatch she’d just received a knock on her door from a man describing himself as a Federal agent, and then pointed what looked like a gun at her.
“This person asked for someone named George”, explains Fresno Police Deputy Chief Pat Farmer. “She advised him that no one named George lived there, and then asked her if she had drugs. The woman said she didn’t have any drugs”.
Fresno Police officers arrived on scene minutes later and identified the suspect.
“The officers saw the suspect matching the description who was described as a Hispanic male in his 20s to 30s with no shirt, covered in tattoos, wearing black shorts”.
“The officers gave commands to show his hands and get down on the ground. The suspect reached into his pocket, pulled out a black pistol looking object at which time the officers both fired their weapons”, continued Deputy Chief Farmer.
“The suspect was shot at that point”.
The suspect was then taken to the hospital and the weapon has since been described by Fresno Police as a black water sprayer.
Fresno Police have since identified 40 year old Fresno man Freddy Centeno as the suspect in the case. Before Deputy Chief Farmer spoke to the media, a man saying he was the suspect’s brother arrived on scene and defended his sibling saying he never had a gun.
“He had no weapons, that’s my point”, revealed Roger Centeno. “He was without a shirt, where’s he going to hide a weapon at?”
“Look at all this stuff that’s going on around the country. I love cops, they protect us. But should they be doing that to us too?”
Roger adds that over a period of eight years his brother, Freddy Centeno, never received adequate treatment for his mental problems, which he says included schizophrenia and a reliance on drugs.
“The blame should be on the city. We need help for people that are mentally ill who have been asking for help. What do they do, they just send him to Metro to get his meds. They didn’t even get a social worker for him at Metro”.
Fresno Police have released Freddy Centeno’s history, describing him as a “mentally disordered parolee” with an extensive criminal history. Three incidents between February and March 2015 have been documented by Fresno PD.
Officers add that the two who responded to the call had no knowledge of the prior incidents and they did believe that what they saw was a firearm.
Witnesses are now being questioned to determine exactly what led to the shooting taking place. This is now the fourth officer involved shooting this year, compared to the fifth this time last year.
Hear the report as it aired on KMJ:
