Deceased Identified In Officer Involved Shooting in Calaveras County
Jenny Lind, CA – The name of the shooter and new details have been released surrounding Sunday’s officer-involved shooting in the Jenny Lind area of Calaveras County.
The deceased is 54-year-old David Arnold of Valley Springs. He was pronounced dead at the scene after a standoff with law enforcement where he exited a garage armed with a high-powered assault rifle and fired at deputies, according to Calaveras Sheriff’s spokesperson Lt. Greg Stark. He added, “The suspect was struck by at least one round.”
As reported here on Sunday, sheriff’s dispatch received several callers reporting a person shooting in an unsafe manner in the 7000 block of Gabor Road. When deputies arrived on the scene, the suspect fired at them from a detached garage. Lt. Stark today described Arnold’s actions towards the deputies as an “ambush,” as two rounds struck a patrol vehicle and they had to take cover.
“We do not know why he was upset or holed up in the garage. That is one of the focuses of the investigation,” shared Lt. Stark. “We’re focusing on motive and trying to get as much information as to his frame of mind.”
Fearing for their safety, deputies set up a perimeter with Lt. Stark, adding, “We evacuated about six residents in the immediate area. We were concerned for their safety due to his erratic firing of his firearm.”
For the next 30 minutes, Arnold sporadically fired out of the garage at the deputies. Meanwhile, backup, consisting of Calaveras County SWAT, Calaveras County Crisis Negotiation Team, Tuolumne County SWAT, and the California Highway Patrol, arrived on scene and a command post was set up. At the same time, investigators got an attempted murder of a peace officer warrant for Arnold, who was also prohibited from possessing guns.
The negotiator then contacted Arnold on his cell phone to try to resolve the incident peacefully. Lt. Stark disclosed, “There was some brief communication with our crisis negotiation team to try to get him to engage. However, he refused their efforts.” Those efforts included the use of a public address system.
In a twist, at around 5:45 a.m., Arnold fired another shot from the garage, and deputies learned that a 10–14-year-old girl was inside the residence next to the detached garage, according to Lt. Stark, who could not give details of her relationship to Arnold. Calaveras and Tuolumne SWAT moved in and were able to rescue her unharmed from the home.
When all attempts to engage Arnold failed, Lt. Stark reported, “Chemical agents were introduced into the detached garage. As deputies introduced the chemical agents, the suspect began firing at the deputies through the roll-up garage door. The deputies did not return fire and maintained their position of cover.”
Arnold then shot multiple rounds through a closed door on the side of the garage. For a second time, deputies held their positions and did not return fire. Lt. Stark recounted, “He shot blindly through that towards where the deputies were prior to bursting out [the door] with a high-powered assault rifle in his hand and continuing to fire at deputies, who then returned fire.”
A multi-agency officer-involved shooting investigation began with members of the Calaveras County Sheriff’s Office Investigations Unit, Tuolumne County Investigations Unit, Calaveras County District Attorney’s Office, Tuolumne County District Attorney’s Office, California Highway Patrol Multidisciplinary Investigation Team, and the California State Department of Justice Crime Scene Investigators. Lt. Stark advised that all involved deputies were placed on paid administrative leave per department policy. He did not give the number of officers on leave, noting that information would be “forthcoming in the following days.”
