Burglary Suspect Killed in Scuffle With Police Officer

An Anaheim police officer shot and killed a burglary suspect early Tuesday morning after the man suddenly emerged from a supermarket’s broken window and jumped on him, a police spokesman said.

Veteran officer Russell A. Sutter, 33, scuffled briefly with the man, then shot him once in the chest when the man turned and appeared to be grabbing a weapon from his pocket, Police Lt. Pete De Paolo said.

The dead man, identified as Guadalupe Ceniceros Sarabia, a 30-year-old transient, carried no weapon, although he had a pair of pliers in his back pocket, police said.

Teams Begin Investigation

As is customary in shootings involving a police officer, special teams of investigators from the Anaheim Police Department and the district attorney’s office immediately opened an inquiry into the death.

That inquiry could take two weeks or more. But De Paolo, who is in charge of all crimes against persons in Anaheim, called Sutter’s split-second decision to shoot “justifiable.”

“He was confronted by the suspect. A guy is in the dark and jumps on you. What can you do?” De Paolo said. “The thing is you don’t want to die, and you’re stuck in the middle (of a fight). It’s just survival.”

The burglary had netted $40 in pennies, some cupcakes, several small apple pies and some Hostess Ding Dongs, said Maria Ortiz, owner of the Conasupo Market, a neighborhood market at 406 N. Anaheim Blvd., where the shooting took place.

Responded to Alarm

De Paolo said police officers headed to the market about 2:45 a.m. in response to a silent alarm. Sutter was the first of three officers, each in separate patrol cars, to arrive.

As Sutter rounded a corner, the suspect stepped from a 6-foot-high display window that had been smashed and “jumped right on the officer,” De Paolo said.

Sutter “pushed him off,” de Paolo said. But “the suspect turned to his right and reached behind himself as if to grab something from his waistband or back pocket, and turned. And the officer fired one round.”

The suspect was treated by paramedics and taken to UCI Medical Center, where he died about 4 a.m.

There were no other witnesses to the shooting, De Paolo said.