Police fatally shoot man after violent struggle

A Fortuna (California) police officer shot and killed a man Friday morning after a reportedly violent struggle on O Street during which the suspect began beating another officer with a baton.

Police Chief William Dobberstein released few details regarding the incident Friday, but said two officers were involved in the early-morning shooting and that the man — later identified as 26-year-old Fortuna resident Jacob Robert Newmaker — reacted violently when contacted by police.

According to a Fortuna Police Department press release, officers attempted to subdue Newmaker with verbal commands, pepper spray, baton strikes, control holds and a Taser, all of which were unsuccessful.

NOT ACTUAL IMAGE OF A POLICE
OFFICER'S BATON BEING TAKEN

Ultimately, an officer fatally shot Newmaker after he took one of the officers' batons and began striking him with it.

Newmaker was pronounced dead at Redwood Memorial Hospital later that morning, and Dobberstein has declined to release the names of the officers involved.

Dobberstein said earlier, officers were dispatched to the Angel Heights Drive neighborhood at 6:16 a.m., after a woman reported a "crazed person banging on the door and yelling and screaming in her front yard."

According to the release, a responding officer learned the suspect left the Angel Heights neighborhood on a bicycle, and officers located Newmaker about three quarters of a mile away, at the intersection of Vista Drive and 11th Street.

Newmaker initially fled the scene, according to the release, then became combative when approached by a responding officer.

The officer used his Taser on Newmaker, but the nonlethal weapon was ineffective, according to the release.

A second officer arrived and joined in the effort to subdue Newmaker in a struggle that became increasingly violent, according to the release, culminating with Newmaker's allegedly wrestling a baton from one of the officers.

"As the suspect was in the process of attempting to strike the officer with the baton, the other officer fired his weapon at the suspect to stop the attack on his fellow officer," the release states.

According to Times-Standard archives, Newmaker had a history of run-ins with the Fortuna Police Department.

ORIGINAL SOURCE
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