SAN JOSE — The man shot and killed by San Jose police Friday was a gang member who was “known to be armed” and had fled from officers earlier that day, the department said Sunday, releasing new details on the city’s eighth officer-involved shooting of the year.
But the man’s relatives, who identified him as Jacob Dominguez of San Jose, painted a different picture, describing their loved one as a family man who was trying to move past his criminal history.
Police say officers were trying to make a traffic stop on a 33-year-old suspect who had a felony warrant for armed robbery at around 7 p.m. on Friday in the area of Penitencia Creek Road and N. White Road. The suspect knew police were looking for him and had evaded capture earlier in the day by driving erratically and dangerously on city streets and on the highway, according to a San Jose Police Department news release.
Officers from the department’s Covert Response Unit conducted a “high-risk” traffic stop, and the suspect became uncooperative, according to the release. Shots were fired, and the suspect was struck at least once. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
No officers were injured.
The officer who opened fire, Mike Pina, is an 11-year veteran of the force and has been placed on routine paid administrative leave, according to the news release.
Police have not released the suspect’s name, or disclosed whether he fired shots, or whether a gun was found on his body. He had a violent criminal record, according to police, which included prior arrests for weapon and drug offenses.
But Dominguez’s family say he was trying to put those past infractions behind him. He was fighting a drug addiction, and was living in a Christian men’s home in San Jose called The Homes of a Loving Father, said his cousin, 37-year-old Raymond Perez, who also lives at the home.
“He was doing great,” Perez said.
Dominguez was on his way to see his wife and three children — two boys and a girl, all under 7 years old — when he was killed, Perez said.
Dominguez also recently appeared in a local crowdfunded documentary called “Making of a Gangsta,” which featured several gang members explaining why they joined gangs. The film, directed by East San Jose native and former Oakland Raiders chaplain Adam Ybarra, was intended to help steer other young people away from gangs.
“Jacob’s story has reached many audiences and almost every response was…’that guy Jacob touched my heart,'” Ybarra wrote on Facebook after hearing of Dominguez’s death.
Dominguez was always happy, constantly joking and laughing, and had “the biggest heart,” said his close friend, 32-year-old Josh Segler.
If Dominguez was wanted for robbery, as police say he was when he was killed, none of his family or friends knew about it, Segler said. And Segler doubted that Dominguez would have been armed while on his way to see his wife and children.
“What are we going to tell his kids?” Segler asked.
Friday’s shooting marks the eighth officer-involved shooting of the year in San Jose — the most since 2015, when the city saw a 10-year high of 12.
The Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office and the San Jose Police Department’s Homicide Unit are investigating Friday’s shooting. The San Jose Police Department’s Internal Affairs Unit, the City Attorney’s Office, and the Office of the Independent Police Auditor are monitoring the case.
Anyone with information is asked to contact Detective Sergeant Bert Milliken or Detective Raul Corral of the San Jose Police Department’s Homicide Unit at 408-277-5283. To remain anonymous, call the Crime Stoppers Tip Line, (408) 947-STOP (7867), or submit a tip online.
A GoFundMe page has been set up to raise money for Dominguez’s family.
