Knife-Wielding UCSD Student Slain by Police

A 21-year-old UC San Diego student was shot to death Tuesday by two San Diego police officers after he ran through a quiet San Carlos neighborhood wielding a knife and threatening to kill himself, police said. The man jumped through a window of a house before he was shot, police said.

Wayne Douglas Holden, who was staying with his father in the 6000 block of Sunny Brae Drive, was pronounced dead at 9:57 a.m. at Sharp Memorial Hospital of gunshot wounds to the chest and back, said Deputy Coroner Jack Laird. An autopsy will be performed today.

The dead man’s father, Robert Holden, 50, said that his son was depressed over a fight he had had with his girlfriend, with whom he had been living in Clairemont, and began acting strangely about 2 a.m. Tuesday.

“I heard angry voices downstairs about 2 a.m.,” Robert Holden said. “My son was acting strangely and saying weird things, acting erratic.

“He got a knife from the kitchen and was telling us he was going to commit suicide. He was obviously having mental problems.”

Several hours later the elder Holden called County Mental Health and a close friend of his son’s to see if they could defuse the situation.

At 7:08 a.m. officers arrived at Holden’s home. According to police, the younger Holden held officers at bay with a 12-inch kitchen knife, while raising it above his head and repeatedly threatening to kill himself. Holden was wearing only a trench coat and underwear.

As officers negotiated with Holden, Lt. Paul Ybarrondo said, Sgt. Robert Stinson, 34, arrived at the scene with a Taser gun. But as Stinson attempted to get close enough to use the nonlethal weapon, the young man fled.

As Holden ran, he waved the knife at officers, stabbed parked cars, and jumped in front of three cars traveling on the street and attempted to enter them, Ybarrondo said.

Stinson and another officer drove in front of the fleeing man, near Sunny Brae Place and Golfcrest Drive, in an attempt to use the Taser weapon, but Holden ran into the front yard of a house on Golfcrest.

Holden jumped through a closed glass window of the house and was standing in a bedroom when Stinson shot one Taser dart at him. The dart missed and, fearing that Holden would attack the owner of the home, who was standing in a hallway, Stinson fired one round from his .38-caliber service revolver.

After Stinson fired, Officer Carl Smith, 31, fired five rounds from his service revolver at Holden.

The elder Holden, who was watching the incident from an upstairs bedroom window, said that his son was running from the police out of fear because his son had told him that he was stopped by police several weeks ago and harassed.

“How can a 140-pound man with a kitchen knife threaten police with guns?” said Holden, who teaches engineering and mathematics at Cuyamaca College. “He had a mental problem. He wasn’t a threat, he was stabbing cars.

“There is definitely a lawsuit here. They are going to pay for this.”