A 73-year-old man with dementia fatally shot by police had a crucifix – not a gun, as officers were led to believe by a neighbour who said she felt threatened by him, Bakersfield police said Wednesday.
A coroner found the plastic crucifix on Francisco Serna well after an officer fatally shot him near his home just after midnight Monday, Sgt. Gary Carruesco said.
It’s still unclear if a 911 caller who had reported a man with a gun may have mistaken the crucifix for a weapon, as Serna’s family speculated.
Officer Reagan Selman fired at Serna seven times after the grandfather refused repeated commands to take his hand out of his pocket and stop walking toward police, incoming Bakersfield police Chief Lyle Martin said at a news conference Tuesday.
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In addition to the 911 caller, Martin said two people who had encountered Serna hours before the shooting thought he was armed.
Meanwhile Serna’s family is calling his death murder. They say they want an independent investigation into the shooting and for the U.S. Justice Department to look into whether police violated Serna’s civil rights.
“It’s difficult to accept that our dad’s life ended so brutally, abruptly and with such excessive violence,” according to a family statement. “Our dad was treated like a criminal, and we feel like he was left to die alone without his family by his side.”
Officer Selman, who had been on the force about 16 months, was placed on routine administrative leave, as were the other officers at the scene.
Martin could not say how many of the seven shots hit Serna, who died in the driveway.
He said it was an extremely difficult set of circumstances for an officer fearing a man with a gun and that it was a terrible situation for everyone involved. He expressed his condolences to the family.
“It’s tragic when a family loses a family member at any time but when you lose a father, a grandfather, during the holiday season, that makes it that much worse,” Martin said.
The shooting came about 20 to 30 seconds after a woman who had encountered Serna pointed him out to police as he walked out of his house across the street and toward them, Martin said.
Earlier on Sunday afternoon, another neighbour who encountered Serna said his hand was in his jacket pocket as though he had a gun, Martin said. Serna tried to force his way into the house of the neighbour, who called his behaviour bizarre.
Serna left, and the neighbour, who had recognized him, did not immediately report the incident.
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Then about eight hours later, the woman who lives across the street from Serna was getting out of a car in her driveway when he came up behind her and asked to get into her car. The woman also saw Serna’s hand in his jacket pocket and thought he had a gun, Martin said.
The woman ran into the house, and her boyfriend called police to report a man in the driveway had a revolver and had brandished it at women, Martin said.
Serna’s son, Rogelio Serna, posted a video on Facebook about the shooting Tuesday. “Right across the street is where the police shot my father … and my dad was not armed,” Rogelio said in the video.
He wrote in another post that his father had dementia and would go on small walks when he had trouble sleeping. “Last night he took his last walk,” he wrote.
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