Spencer Shepard | spencer@kvsun.com<\/p>\n
The Kern County Sheriff\u2019s Office says an officer-involved shooting that left a 39-year-old Lake Isabella man dead in January followed department policy after an internal review completed last week.<\/p>\n
The shooting happened early Jan. 11 after deputies responded to reports of gunfire near the 5300 block of Lake Isabella Boulevard. Deputies identified the man as Fernando Padilla.<\/p>\n
According to the Sheriff\u2019s Office, deputies first encountered Padilla hours earlier that evening while investigating a domestic violence call in the 1700 block of Kilbreth Avenue. Deputies moved the victim to a safe location during that response. Officials said Padilla was believed to be armed and possibly suicidal but had not threatened anyone with the firearm at that time. Deputies disengaged as a de-escalation strategy because the reported offense was a misdemeanor and concerns existed about his mental state.<\/p>\n
Around 12:40 a.m., dispatchers began receiving new 9-1-1 calls reporting shots fired near Lake Isabella Boulevard. Deputies responding to the area determined Padilla was allegedly firing a handgun in a populated area, which led to a felony investigation.<\/p>\n
Deputies made contact with Padilla about 12:50 a.m., but he ignored commands and ran toward Highway 178. Authorities said deputies followed him for more than a mile while repeatedly ordering him to stop and requesting additional resources, including crisis negotiators, air support, a drone team, K-9 units, allied agencies and a supervising sergeant.<\/p>\n
During the pursuit, Padilla began walking westbound in the eastbound lanes of Highway 178, creating a danger to motorists, according to the Sheriff\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n
Deputies deployed a 40-millimeter launcher that fires foam or sponge rounds designed to stop or deter a suspect. After the first round struck him, officials said Padilla fired two shots into the air. Deputies issued more commands and fired a second less-lethal round.<\/p>\n
Investigators said Padilla then turned toward deputies while holding the firearm, and deputies opened fire. He was pronounced dead at the scene.<\/p>\n
Homicide detectives took over the investigation, and deputies Tyler Lathouwers and Caleb Smith were placed on routine critical incident leave, a standard step after deputy-involved shootings. The Sheriff\u2019s Office said all uses of deadly force are investigated and submitted to the Kern County District Attorney\u2019s Office for review.<\/p>\n
On Feb. 4, the Sheriff\u2019s Office convened an Incident Review Board to evaluate the case and determined the deputies\u2019 use of force fell within department policy.<\/p>\n
Anyone with information about the incident is asked to contact the Kern County Sheriff\u2019s Office at 661-861-3110 or Kern Secret Witness at 661-322-4040.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Spencer Shepard | spencer@kvsun.com The Kern County Sheriff\u2019s Office says an officer-involved shooting that left a 39-year-old Lake…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":171138,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[151,153,152],"class_list":["post-171137","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bakersfield","tag-bakersfield","tag-bakersfield-headlines","tag-bakersfield-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171137","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=171137"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171137\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/171138"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=171137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=171137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=171137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}