San Jose police officers cleared in fatal shooting
Mar 28, 2025
(KRON) -- The Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office concluded that a group of San Jose Police Department officers lawfully shot and killed a man last year who was armed with a gun.
Roberto Rivera, Jr., 50, was intoxicated and suicidal when he walked into Catracho taqueria on Senter Road,
waived a gun around, and made threatening statements on Sept. 8, 2024, investigators with the DA's Office wrote in a report released on Friday.
Rivera told people in a taqueria, "Everyone here is about to get U-Visas," an immigration status that is given to some violent crime victims, prosecutors said. A surveillance camera's video shows Rivera firing bullets into the ceiling.
After he left the restaurant, Rivera walked up to a random man who was sitting in a nearby truck and shot him in the neck, the DA's report says. Soon after, the gunman was stopped outside a 7-Eleven store by six SJPD police officers. "For the next 20 seconds, officers pleaded with Rivera to surrender," the report states.
Rivera shouted to the officers, "Shoot me!" according to prosecutors.
The report states, "(Rivera) began a countdown and slowly lowered his gun and pointed it directly at officers positioned behind a car to his right. At that moment, officers Cesar Fernandez, Jessie Gifford, Juan-Carlos Jerez, and Brett Vranich, believed he intended to shoot and kill their fellow officers, and they discharged multiple rounds from their department-issued firearms, killing Rivera."
Prosecutor Rob Baker concluded that Rivera’s refusal to drop his gun, and deliberate motion pointing his firearm in the direction of officers, made clear his intent was to commit "suicide by cop. Officers …. had no other choice but to employ lethal force in defense of their fellow officers."
"After Rivera Jr. was down, police sent a K9 dog to pull him away from his nearby weapon. The dog latched on to Rivera Jr.’s throat twice. However, the medical examiner deemed it was the police bullets and not the injuries caused by the K9 that killed the suspect," the report states.
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A toxicology analysis revealed that Rivera had methamphetamine in his system, and his blood alcohol level was 0.18%, according to the report.
The District Attorney’s Office is tasked with deciding if lethal force used by county law enforcement is legal. Officers may by law use lethal force if they or someone else is in imminent danger. Fernandez, Gifford, Jerez, and Vranich were cleared of any criminal wrong-doing. ...read more read less