17-year-old hospitalized after being shot by an officer in Tracy, police say

A 17-year-old armed with a knife was hospitalized after being shot twice by an officer in Tracy on Friday afternoon, police said. Tracy police said an officer was called to Foxtail Way at 1:47 p.m. after reports of a male chasing another male with a knife. Police said numerous 911 calls were made.Police said an officer arrived and contacted the person with a knife and told him to drop it. “The suspect failed to follow the commands as he advanced toward the officer. Fearing for his safety and the safety of those in the area, the officer discharged his duty firearm, striking the individual,” Tracy police said on Facebook. The officer who shot the teen is a 28-year-old veteran of the department, police said. A department spokesperson told KCRA 3’s Lee Anne Denyer that investigators are reviewing body camera footage and plan to release it as soon as possible.”With any use of force, and certainly an officer-involved shooting, we will turn every leaf to make sure that we’ve done it correctly, that there isn’t a training or even legal issue. That’s our obligation to the community,” said Lt. Mario Ysit, a spokesperson for the department on scene Friday. The teen who was shot was given first aid by officers at the scene until emergency medical personnel arrived, police said. He is in serious but stable condition.Ysit said detectives were still working to confirm the relationship between the teenager and the other male involved as well as the circumstances leading up to the officers’ arrival. “I don’t yet know the exact dynamic of what was happening prior to our arrival,” he said.James Cummings, who lives nearby, said he saw the young man with the knife chasing the other individual and that, at one point, the young man without the knife tried to come into his garage during the ordeal. Cummings said he called police and later heard two shots being fired.”It ended the way it ended and I guess everything else is in God’s hands,” he said.The Sacramento Valley/Central California office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations said the person who was shot was a Muslim teen and called for an independent investigation.“We are monitoring this extremely disturbing incident and demand that law enforcement authorities operate with full transparency and conduct an independent investigation that will swiftly make public all the facts in this case,” said CAIR-SV/CC Executive Director Basim Elkarra.Elkarra said Friday he wanted to see the body camera footage before making additional comments.Tracy police said investigators are working to interview witnesses and will not release police body-worn camera footage until those interviews are completed. Anyone with information to share is encouraged to call Detective Philip Giusto at Philip.Giusto@TracyPD.com or at 209-831-6551.

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