Stockton police have identified a man fatally shot by officers who said he threatened them with an ax after attacking a home in a south Stockton neighborhood.
Moises Flores-Andrade, 25, of Stockton, took an ax to the front door of a residence in the 2000 block of Nevada Street, authorities said Wednesday in a social media post.
Officers responded around 7 a.m. Monday to reports of an ax-wielding man who was trying to smash in the front door of a home.
After arriving at the scene and documenting the damage to the door — which included splintered wood and bent metal on the knob — police received information indicating the attacker may have been heading to another residence, “where additional acts of violence were believed to be possible.”
Authorities quickly learned the suspect, identified as Flores-Andrade, was staying at a home a few blocks away.
Police then went to that residence, in the 1200 block of Deep Cliff Way, and found Flores-Andrade inside the garage. Officers tried to engage the man in conversation, but during the exchange, he armed himself with an ax, prompting one officer to draw his service weapon and the other to unholster his Taser in an effort to de-escalate the situation.
However, during the confrontation, Flores-Andrade raised the ax “in a threatening manner,” prompting police to shoot him, authorities said.
The officers, neither of whom were injured in the encounter, rendered first aid to Flores-Andrade before emergency services arrived and transported him to an area hospital, where he was later pronounced dead, police said.
On Wednesday afternoon, residents were still shaken up by the violence. A family contacted at the home where Flores-Andrade had attempted to break in told Stocktonia they were moving — but not because of the incident. The residents, who did not wish to provide their names, said they had already been planning their move.
Carlos Ochoa Franco has lived on Nevada Street for about 10 years. He said he first heard about Monday’s police shooting and what prompted it from a reporter. The area is usually quiet, the 73-year-old said.
“I can’t say the neighborhood is bad,” Franco said. “Nothing has ever happened to us.”
David Kemp, 76, said he heard from a neighbor that Flores-Andrade had been seen riding a bicycle in the area, which he called “respectful.”
Several residents on Deep Cliff Way, about a mile away, said the investigation forced them out of their homes for hours Monday morning.
The police shooting and what led up to it are now under investigation by the Stockton Police Department, the San Joaquin County District Attorney’s Bureau of Investigations, the California Department of Justice and the San Joaquin County Medical Examiner’s Office, authorities said.