Bakersfield, California — On Thursday afternoon, the Kern County Sheriff’s Office released shocking body camera footage of an officer-involved shooting in California City, which injured both the 17-year-old suspect and an officer.
The shooting occurred in April, and the sheriff’s office released only a portion of one officer’s body-worn camera footage on Friday. The video depicts everything that happened that afternoon, from a witness’ 911 call to the suspect’s arrest.
Annette Garcia, 17, is currently in Juvenile Hall awaiting her competency trial. The footage released by KCSO begins with a witness making a 911 call.
“Okay, a girl is walking towards Lime right now. Red bandana. She just fired a gun. “She just put it in her pocket,” the caller explained. “Let’s enter the house before she shoots again. I do not want to die. She had just shot the gun, but all she saw was my son. Sh**. “She waved to him.”
The witness saw Garcia on the afternoon of April 21 as she allegedly walked around Corwin Street and Lime Avenue in California City, armed with a handgun.
There were several witnesses.
“Did she shoot at you?” the caller asks a passerby in a white van.
“She shot at the white van,” she informs the dispatcher. “He’s trying to call you guys too.”
The sheriff’s office stated that the van and a package inside had been broken into. Initially, two California City police officers responded to the scene.
According to reports, one of them, Officer Timothy Stivers, spoke with witnesses while the other, Officer Michael Kelakios, searched for Garcia. He found her nearby on Hickory Avenue, and a gun battle ensued. Officer Kelakios fired a total of 15 shots.
Two of them struck Garcia in the right hip and left elbow. Kelakios was shot in the leg and is currently on leave while he recovers.
“Where you shot man?” Officer Stivers asks Officer Kelakios, who is applying a tourniquet to his colleague.
“Right here, bro,” Kelakios responds, adding, “She’s young and went that way. “Watch out, bro, she just pulled the gun and shot right at me.” wearing grey pants, grey hoodie, Hispanic female with black hair. “Go get them, dude, go, go, go!”
Following the altercation, Justin Vincent, the city’s director of public safety — or chief of fire and police — arrived at the scene.
Vincent and Stivers go after the suspect. Vincent told 17 News he had Garcia at gunpoint with his AR-15. Garcia also carried extra live ammunition and a knife.
“Show us your hands now! Put your hands up! All the way up! The officers shouted, “All the way up!” as they apprehended Garcia.
“I apologize.” I was simply trying to help my family. Garcia responded, “They were trying to kill my family.”
Garcia struggles visibly and audibly while being handcuffed and arrested, indicating that she is in pain. As officers ask her to lie on her stomach, Garcia says, “I can’t.”
At an earlier juvenile court hearing, a prosecutor stated that Garcia had access to unsecured firearms at her mother’s house. Vincent stated that the mother was arrested last week for a felony, allowing a minor access to firearms. Garcia faces nine charges in total, including two counts of attempted murder, assault with a firearm on a peace officer, carrying a loaded firearm in public, and being a minor in possession of ammunition.
The case was postponed several times while Garcia recovered at Antelope Valley Hospital.
She has now passed a psychologist’s mental competency examination. A judge will review the results to determine whether she is competent to stand trial.
KCSO stated that the use of force in this case was within policy.
