May 10, 2023 An armed man who opened fire on Brentwood police while using a woman as a human shield was wounded when an officer’s bullet struck a staircase handrail and broke into smaller pieces.
By Nate Gartrell Source Bay Area News Group Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
Brentwood police have released a video showing a city police officer shooting at a man who’d already fired a pistol at two other officers, and authorities now acknowledge that both the suspect and the woman he was holding hostage were struck by the officer’s gunfire.
The video of the March 12 incident, released in an edited form Tuesday, shows Brentwood police Officer Jordan Sares firing at 30-year-old Joshua Dion Smith while running toward Smith, as he stands in a dimly lit entrance to an apartment on Sycamore Avenue in Brentwood. The video shows Smith was using the woman as a human shield as he fired at two officers moments before Sares came face to face with him and fired one round in their direction.
The bullet fired by Sares hit a staircase handrail and broke up into smaller pieces, which struck both Smith and the woman. Afterward, the two fell to the ground, causing Smith to drop the gun. Officers then rushed in to arrest him.
None of the officers were struck by gunfire. Both Smith and the woman were briefly hospitalized with nonfatal injuries.
The video’s release marks the first time police have specifically acknowledged the woman was struck by an officer’s bullet. An earlier news release on the incident said the woman was struck by gunfire and that both police and Smith fired shots during the incident, but didn’t specify who actually shot her.
Smith was subsequently charged with 15 felonies, including attempting to murder three Brentwood officers, kidnapping the woman, assaulting her with a firearm, criminal threats, gun possession, and false imprisonment through violence, according to court records. The charges remain pending and Smith is in pretrial detention in the Contra Costa jail system.
Sares has been with Brentwood police since 2014, has worked as a violent crimes detective, and before working at Brentwood was a Contra Costa sheriff’s deputy for two years, according to public records.
After Smith was arrested, video shows Sares and other officers rendering aid to the woman, whose face is blurred in the video.
“Sweetheart are you OK? My name’s Officer Sares…we’re gonna help you, OK?” Sares says, according to footage from his body-worn camera, as the woman moans in pain. “We’ve got an ambulance coming. Focus on me, OK?”