Deputies Kill Knife-Wielding Man in Imperial Beach

Sheriff’s deputies killed a man who threatened them with a knife while a San Diego police officer shot and wounded a fleeing robbery suspect in incidents just hours apart late Sunday and early Monday.

Richard A. Escatell, 28, of Imperial Beach, was shot and killed after ignoring warnings to drop a butcher knife, Sgt. Glenn Revell said.

Deputies William O. Giltner, 27, and Dave C. Paseman, 29, answered a call from an apartment in the 600 block of 12th Street in Imperial Beach shortly after midnight Monday, Revell said. Rebecca Escatell told them that her estranged husband was drinking and had become abusive, Revell said.

The deputies talked Richard Escatell into leaving.

Shortly later, the deputies returned, along with Sgt. Paul Nevills, in answer to a call by Rebecca Escatell that her husband had kicked down the door.

The lawmen called for Escatell to leave the apartment but got no answer. Nevills went to the back of the apartment, and Giltner and Paseman the front, Revell said.

The two deputies found Richard Escatell on a bed, Revell said. When they tried to rouse him, he brandished the butcher knife.

The deputies ordered him to drop the knife several times, but he raised it threateningly and came toward them, Revell said.

When Escatell was 5 to 8 feet away, Giltner and Paseman each fired several times. Escatell died at the scene.

In a shooting Sunday night, San Diego police wounded robbery suspect Rodney Martin, 26, of San Diego. He is in stable condition at Mercy Hospital with wounds in his left thigh and abdomen, a hospital spokesman said.

Martin was shot by Officer Danny Santiago, 26, at 10:46 p.m. Sunday as the robbery suspect was climbing a fence while fleeing, Lt. Dan Berglund said.

The chase began when officer Jim Stevens spotted a car taken in a robbery Saturday night, Berglund said.

Stevens gave chase in his squad car and was joined by Santiago. There were two men in the fleeing car and, during the chase, police saw a rifle and money thrown from the vehicle, Berglund said.

The car crashed into a parked vehicle in the 4100 block of 38th Street, and the two men fled into an apartment building.

Officer Stevens seized Christopher Eugene Henson in the building.

Martin was reportedly scaling a fence at the rear of the building when Santiago shot him.

Santiago could not see Martin’s hands as he paused on the top of the fence, and he thought Martin, whom he suspected of being the armed bandit involved in an earlier robbery, was reaching for a gun, Berglund said. No weapon was found.

Henson, 21, of San Diego, was being held in the downtown County Jail on suspicion of robbery and auto theft, a jail spokeswoman said. Henson is scheduled to be arraigned Wednesday.