Officer Wounds Man He Says Threatened Him

A San Diego police officer shot and critically wounded a man early Sunday after the victim, who earlier had threatened employees of a Southeast San Diego fast-food restaurant, turned on the officer in an alley and threatened him with a knife, according to police.

The victim, Pedro Perez, 22, was in critical condition at the UC San Diego Medical Center. A hospital official said Perez, whose address and occupation were not immediately available, was being treated for a gunshot wound in the chest. The official police statement said Officer Jay Moser, the officer involved in the shooting, fired one shot, which hit Perez in the shoulder.

Following regular police procedure, Moser was immediately taken off patrol duty and given a desk assignment pending the results of an investigation of the shooting, said Bill Robinson, a Police Department spokesman.

Robinson noted that the procedure also calls for the police homicide squad to investigate the matter and forward the results of its inquiry to the district attorney’s office, which may also investigate. In addition, the police spokesman said, there will be a standard departmental inquiry conducted by police administrators.

The official statement said the incident stemmed from an early-morning altercation at Alberto’s restaurant at Market and 25th streets.

Police provided the following account:

At about 1:45 a.m. Sunday, two men in the restaurant “became aggressive” and an argument broke out between them and the restaurant staff. The men proceeded to threaten employees with a knife and then “ransacked” the restaurant, breaking several windows.

The two men fled when Officer Michael Gulyas passed by the scene and observed the broken windows. Moser, who was in the area, heard a radio report of the incident and began to pursue one of the suspects, later identified as Perez, on foot. Moser chased him to an alley on the 400 block of 25th Street.

“After ignoring repeated demands to halt,” the police statement said, “the suspect suddenly reversed his direction, advancing on the officer with the knife in his hand.”

The statement said that Moser fired a shot, hitting Perez, when Perez refused to drop his knife and continued to advance.

The second suspect, Oscar Ramirez of San Diego, was arrested and held at San Diego County Jail on assault charges. Bail was set at $5,000.