More details emerge after deadly Redding officer-involved shooting

December 2, 2020 Trevor Montgomery

UPDATED: Friday, Dec. 4, 11:35 p.m.

See Original Story below.

REDDING, Calif. — In response to inquiries about Tuesday’s fatal shooting involving a woman who ran over a Redding police officer, Shasta County Sheriff’s Office today released the following statement:

On December 2nd, 2020, at approximately 6:27 PM, officers from the Redding Police Department responded to a disturbance call in Discovery Village, located on Dana Drive.

The disturbance involved a 62-year-old female from Yuba County, Ca. She has since been identified as Dolores Hernandez of Marysville.

The disturbance initially occurred within MOD Pizza, where the female was yelling and cursing at patrons and store management. After several store management attempts to have the female leave, she eventually exited the business and continued to cause a disturbance in the parking lot.

After more than 20 minutes of her disruptive behavior, a shopping center security guard attempted to intervene. She began to berate the security guard and still refused to leave the location.

Based on her erratic behavior and refusing to leave, the security guard contacted the Redding Police Department.

Two Redding Police Officers responded and located the female sitting in the driver’s seat of a dark sedan. She was the sole occupant of the vehicle and was parked directly in front of MOD Pizza.

While officers were talking to the female suspect in her vehicle, she began to back out of the
parking stall and appeared to be leaving.

After backing up a few feet, the female suspect stopped her vehicle, put it in drive, turned her wheels toward the officers, nearly striking one of them.

The officers ended up on the driver’s side of the vehicle. An officer tried to get her to stop by striking the driver’s window of her vehicle with his baton giving her commands to stop her vehicle.

The female suspect placed her vehicle in reverse, turned the tires and accelerated backwards.

One of the officers was struck by the vehicle’s front driver’s side tire and fell to the ground, becoming pinned under the tire. If the vehicle accelerated forward, this movement would have put the officer in more danger potentially causing him to be run over by the rear tires.

The secondary officer on scene immediately attempted to disable the suspect’s vehicle by deflating the left rear tire. While the first officer was still pinned underneath the driver’s side tire, the secondary officer drew his sidearm and fired multiple shots at the female suspect, fatally wounding her.

The officer who was struck by the suspect’s vehicle was injured due to the incident and was transported to the hospital via ambulance. He is expected to make a full recovery and has since been discharged from the hospital.

The two involved officers will be identified at a later date, as this investigation is ongoing. The Shasta County Multi-Agency Officer Involved Critical Incident Protocol was initiated, and the Shasta County Sheriff’s Office Major Crimes Unit is the lead investigating agency.

No additional information will be released at this time.

Anyone who may have witnessed this incident who has not already been contacted, or has any additional information, is urged to contact the Shasta County Sheriff’s Office Major Crimes Unit at 530-245-6135 or by email.

Original Story: Officer hospitalized after Redding disturbance leads to fatal officer-involved shooting

UDATED: Thursday, Dec. 3, 11:30 a.m., With additional details and witness statements.

Originally Published: Dec. 2, 11:42 p.m.

REDDING, Calif. — From eyewitness accounts and official releases, details are beginning to emerge after a deadly officer-involved shooting that happened in Redding last night, Wednesday, Dec 2.

The fatal encounter, which left one woman dead and an officer injured after the deceased woman “used her vehicle as a battering ram” to run over the officer, according to one witness, happened in the Discovery Village parking lot on Dana Drive, directly across from the Mt. Shasta Mall.

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City of Redding police officers responded to the popular shopping center, which was packed when the shooting occurred, around 7 p.m., after receiving reports of a disturbance in the parking lot near Manhattan Bagel, Cold Stone and MOD Pizza.

Officials have since reported, “When officers arrived an altercation ensued with the suspect which ultimately resulted in an officer involved shooting.”

“One officer was injured as a result of the altercation and was transported to the hospital via ambulance but is expected to make a full recovery,” the release continued.

Officials were continuing to work at the scene of last night’s fatal officer-involved shooting well into this morning. Redding PD photo

Despite the sparse details in Redding PD’s initial release, witnesses have since provided more information about what happened during the fatal encounter.

As reported last night, a witness who requested to not be identified, told KRCR News Channel 7 he was sitting in front of Cold Stone when he noticed two uniformed police officers “communicating with someone in their vehicle.”

“They seemed calm based on body language,” the witness described.

“It seemed like they were doing their job effectively and weren’t being aggressive, or overly aggressive, or anything like that,” the man continued. “They were just calm, having a normal conversation.”

However, at some point things changed and the witness described hearing “a disagreement” just before seeing the driver “use (her) vehicle as a battering ram.”

“From what I saw, an officer was hit,” the man continued.

Other witnesses described that when the first officer was struck by the vehicle, the other officer appeared to open fire, killing the woman. Witnesses have also reported hearing around four to five shots fired. However; citing the early and ongoing nature of their investigation, Redding PD has not verified or confirmed either of those details.

The Shasta County Multi-Agency Officer Involved Critical Incident Protocol was initiated with the Shasta County Sheriff’s Office being the lead investigating agency.

This is a developing story that will be updated as new information becomes available.

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Trevor Montgomery, 49, moved in 2017 to the Intermountain area of Shasta County from Riverside County and runs Riverside County News Source and Shasta County News Source. Additionally, he writes or has written for several other news organizations; including Riverside County based newspapers, Valley News, (the now defunct) Valley Chronicle, Anza Valley Outlook, and Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle; as well as Bonsall/Fallbrook Village News in San Diego County and Mountain Echo in Shasta County.

Trevor spent 10 years in the U.S. Army as an Orthopedic Specialist before joining the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department in 1998. He was medically retired after losing his leg, breaking his back, and suffering both spinal cord and brain injuries in an off-duty accident. (Click here to see segment of Discovery Channel documentary of Trevor’s accident.)

During his time with the sheriff’s department, Trevor worked at several different stations; including Robert Presley Detention Center, Southwest Station in Temecula, Hemet/Valle Vista Station, Ben Clark Public Safety Training Center, and Lake Elsinore Station; along with other locations.

Trevor’s assignments included Corrections, Patrol, DUI Enforcement, Boat and Personal Water-Craft based Lake Patrol, Off-Road Vehicle Enforcement, Problem Oriented Policing Team, and Personnel/Background Investigations. He finished his career while working as a Sex Crimes and Child Abuse Investigator and was a court-designated expert in child abuse and child sex-related crimes.

Trevor has been married for more than 30 years and was a foster parent to more than 60 children over 13 years. He is now an adoptive parent and his “fluid family” includes 13 children and 18 grandchildren.