a nearly 17-minute video<\/a> of the encounter. The release was within the 45-day window that California requires law enforcement to release such footage.<\/p>\n![\"Maria](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/SUT-L-VIDEO-DEMAND7.jpg\")
Maria Esther Enriquez, widow of Carlos Enriquez, speaks as daughter Aleyna Enriquez, right, and attorney Gene Iredale, look on at a news conference May 14 in San Diego. (Denis Poroy \/ For The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\n
The suit alleges that police \u201crepeatedly failed to de-escalate\u201d the situation, and that Enriquez had not threatened anyone. \u201cHis responses and demeanor clearly demonstrated that any failure to follow instructions resulted from intoxication and confusion rather than intentional noncompliance or any intent to threaten or harm others,\u201d it alleges.<\/p>\n
Enriquez \u201csuffered from significant mental health issues stemming from his service as a combat medic,\u201d according to the filing from attorneys Steve Hoffman, Julia Yoo and Iredale.<\/p>\n
The 41-page filing details the early morning encounter between Enriquez and police outside his Bonita home. It says that recent difficulties had triggered a mental health crisis, and he had been drinking heavily. Fearing he might harm himself, his family fled and called 911. \u201cHe has a gun,\u201d his wife told a dispatcher, in audio released from the incident. \u201cHe tried to kill me.\u201d<\/p>\n
More officers were called in, and the department sent out its Bearcat armored vehicle and a drone.<\/p>\n
In a news release shortly after the incident, San Diego police homicide Lt. Jon Dungan said Enriquez was in front of his home, his hands in his pockets. Chula Vista police ordered him to put his hands up. (Under a countywide agreement, San Diego police investigate shootings by other policing agencies in the region.)<\/p>\n
When Enriquez pulled his hands out of his pockets, he dropped a firearm, Dungan said. Chula Vista officers ordered him to walk away from the gun, \u201cbut he instead sat down and put the handgun on his lap.\u201d<\/p>\n
The suit alleges that Enriquez was visibly intoxicated, staggering and had difficulty standing. He was so intoxicated, it said, that he could not stand after sitting on a step in front of the home. It also says that Enriquez told officers he was not going to shoot anyone.<\/p>\n
Dungan said in the release that after Enriquez failed for several minutes to put his hands up, he was shot once with a beanbag round. It knocked him back, and the gun fell out of his lap.<\/p>\n
The suit alleges that police gave Enriquez only a four-second warning before firing that beanbag shot\u00a0\u2014 not enough time for a heavily intoxicated person to comply. The suit also alleges that striking him with a beanbag \u201cquickly escalated what was a static situation.\u201d<\/p>\n
While Enriquez was still down, he picked up the gun, according to police and the lawsuit. The video shows him roll over, grab the gun and raise it while still on his back.\u00a0Officer Alfonso Perdomo, Officer Roman Buyson and Agent Thomas Luhta opened fire.<\/p>\n
Police said earlier this year that Enriquez had pointed the weapon at them. The suit states he \u201cwas not pointing the gun at anyone, and he lacked the capacity to train his gun on anyone.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe had threatened no one and harmed no one, and showed no intent to harm anyone,\u201d the suit reads. \u201cThere was no need for lethal force to be used.\u201d<\/p>\n
The filing notes that two of the officers who shot Enriquez had each been part of separate prior incidents that resulted in the death of a person in a mental health crisis. The District Attorney\u2019s Office cleared both officers of any criminal liability.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The family of a retired Navy medic and Iraq war veteran who was fatally shot during a standoff…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":488435,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5134],"tags":[5229,113827,1582,276,16214,356,5295,1370,728,50,3549,3550,7264,34159,7289,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-488434","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-bonita","10":"tag-ca","11":"tag-california","12":"tag-chula-vista","13":"tag-courts","14":"tag-crime-and-public-safety","15":"tag-latest-headlines","16":"tag-local-news","17":"tag-news","18":"tag-san-diego","19":"tag-san-diego-county","20":"tag-sandiego","21":"tag-south-county","22":"tag-top-stories-sdut","23":"tag-united-states","24":"tag-united-states-of-america","25":"tag-unitedstates","26":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","27":"tag-us","28":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115828788040112721","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488434","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=488434"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488434\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/488435"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=488434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=488434"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=488434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}