Authorities have released more details and video footage related to an officer-involved shooting in Richmond on Thursday that killed a suspect in a kidnapping and attempted murder case out of Vallejo.
The incident unfolded at about 8 a.m., when Vallejo police began investigating a report of a missing 29-year-old woman. Family members reported the victim had gone to breakfast earlier that morning with suspect Juan Ayon-Barraza, a 24-year-old Vallejo resident, police said. A short time later, Ayon-Barraza called a family member and made an unsettling comment. At about 8 a.m., a family member contacted Ayon-Barraza in person to determine the woman’s whereabouts, and Ayon-Barraza was evasive and fled from them, police said.
Later that evening at about 6:45 p.m., a concerned citizen in Moraga called 911 after seeing a subject discarding what appeared to be a body on the side of the road from a white Chevy Astro van, police said. Oakland and Moraga police and the Contra Costa Sheriff’s Office responded to the area of Pinehurst Road and Skyline Boulevard, police said.
The 29-year-old woman from the Vallejo missing person case was located with critical injuries and transported to a local hospital, where she is on life support, police said.
A Moraga police officer who responded to the call spotted the van and attempted a traffic stop, but the suspect, identified as Ayon-Barraza, fled and a pursuit ensued toward Oakland. Oakland police pursued the van at high speed for about 20 minutes, and the chase ended up on Richmond’s streets. While trying to make a U-turn on S. 37th Street at Carlson Boulevard, the suspect pointed a firearm at pursuing officers, police said.
“Multiple Oakland police officers and a Richmond police officer fired their weapons in defense of their and/or other lives, simultaneously, the suspect vehicle crossed over into traffic on S. 37th Street near Stege Ave. and collided with an Oakland police vehicle,” injuring two officers as a result, police said.
Ayon-Barraza was fatally shot. One of the officers struck by his van was treated and released while the other remains in a local hospital and is expected to survive his injuries.
The incident remains under investigation. Anyone with additional information regarding this investigation please contact the Contra Costa County District Attorney’s Office at 925-957-2200 or Sgt. Pomeroy with the Richmond Police Department at 510-620-6616.
