A California man who had been incarcerated for the attempted murder of two Stockton police officers and freed under California’s “compassionate release” law was rearrested last week after authorities said they found a loaded short-barrel shotgun and in his car during a traffic stop.
San Joaquin County Sheriff Patrick Withrow reported the arrest Monday in a video on social media. He says the law that allowed Steven Rodriguez, 57, to be released early from a 20-year prison sentence is misguided. The decision could have jeopardized the life of the deputy who pulled him over, the sheriff said.
Rodriguez was serving time for charges in a 2017 shootout with Stockton police. Authorities said he shot at officers during a pursuit, with some of the bullets piercing their police cruiser. He fled and later was arrested in San Francisco by federal agents.
In November 2025, less than halfway through his prison sentence, Rodriguez was allowed to go free.
“They said that they needed a compassionate release for this guy because he was going to die in six months and he couldn’t walk on his own. He was wheelchair-bound,” Withrow said in the video.
Yet when Rodriguez was arrested on May 7, he showed no signs of having trouble walking, the sheriff said.
Withrow argued that allowing a dangerous repeat offender like Rodriguez to go free under the state’s revised compassionate release law is “ridiculous and has to stop.”
Rodriguez was arrested last week and faces multiple weapons-related charges as well as parole violations, according to booking documents from the San Joaquin County Sheriff’s Office.
Withrow said the traffic stop could have had deadly consequences.
“He could have killed this deputy when he walked up on this car,” the sheriff said.
Rodriguez, who is scheduled to appear in court Tuesday, was being held without bail in the San Joaquin County jail.