UPDATE - El Dorado County officials have identified the man fatally shot by sheriff's deputies Saturday night as Matthew James Zaiser, 26, of El Dorado Hills.
EL DORADO HILLS, Calif. -- The weapon pointed at police during an officer-involved shooting Saturday night in El Dorado turned out to be a pellet rifle, investigators said Sunday.The incident started around 8:30 p.m. when police received a call from a man at the home who was threatening to run over a group of children's heads.
Deputies responded to the 3300 block of Tartan Trail , a cul de sac in the Sterlingshire community in El Dorado Hills, around 8:35 p.m. Saturday after a man called and threatened to start running over kids' heads with his car because they were being loud while skateboarding, El Dorado County sheriff's Sgt. Bryan Golmitz said. Fearing for the childrens' safety, deputies arrived to find the man standing at the top of his driveway holding a dark-colored rifle under a towel. Golmitz said deputies ordered the man to drop the weapon, but he refused. The man, who is around 20, was asked by officers to put down a weapon that appeared to be a rifle. The man refused and pointed his weapon at the officers who fired their weapons, police said.
"Deputies took cover and gave him commands to drop the weapon. He failed to do so, and he raised the weapon towards the deputies," said Sgt. Bryan Golmitz of the El Dorado County Sheriff's Department. The man was shot three times, according to investigators. He was pronounced dead at the scene. His identity was not immediately released pending family notification, Golmitz said.
The pellet rifle was black in color with a scope mounted to it and was covered with a towel concealing the center section of the rifle, officials said in a news release. Investigators found the weapon was actually a black pellet rifle with a mounted scope. Golmitz said end of the barrel and butt stock were the only areas exposed and visible to the deputies.
Golmitz said a multi-agency task force was investigating the shooting. Three El Dorado County Sheriff's deputies were put on administrative leave after one of them shot and killed an armed man Saturday night
Official Press Release:
El Dorado County Sheriff Office
Press Release
For Immediate Release Sgt. Bryan Golmitz
Update
May 25, 2008 at 1600 hours, the El Dorado Sheriff’s Office investigation into the
Tartan Trail incident revealed that the subject was armed with a pellet rifle. The
pellet rifle was black in color with a scope mounted on it. The subject had covered
the rifle with a towel concealing the center section of the pellet rifle but the end of
the barrel and butt stock was exposed and visible to the deputies. Preliminary
investigation suggests that the involved deputies shot at the subject three times.
The subject’s identity will be withheld until official notification of the next of kin.
Fatal shooting of subject in EL Dorado Hills
May 24, 2008 at 8:36 P.M. El Dorado County Sheriff’s Dispatch received a 911
call from a male stating that he was going run over some kids heads with his car
because they are noisy. Concerned for the safety of the children and the welfare
male caller deputies were sent to 3386 Tartan Trail in El Dorado Hills.
Deputies arrived on scene in minutes and were confronted by a white male subject
in his twenties at the top of the driveway. The subject was holding a dark colored
rifle under a towel. Deputies order the subject to drop the weapon, but he refused.
The subject then raised the rifle and pointed it at the deputies. Deputies shot the
subject with their service weapons. The subject was pronounced dead at the scene.
As per protocol, a multi-agency task force is investigating the shooting. Official
notification of next of kin is pending at this time.
