'Would you fire?' Manteca police react after officers fire dozens of rounds at man
Following a Wednesday police shooting at an In-N-Out drive-thru, the Manteca Police Department responded to questions about why officers fired so many rounds at a man who was ramming patrol vehicles. In multiple videos captured by eyewitnesses at the scene, the sound of more than two dozen gunshots can be heard at the fast food restaurant, located off Yosemite Avenue and Highway 99.In a late-night interview hours after the 5 p.m. shooting, Sgt. Steven Beerman, the department's spokesman, was asked to respond to concerns from eyewitnesses at the scene who watched officers shoot a driver of a white van after the van rammed a police vehicle, backed up and rammed it a second time."I think that's the easiest thing to answer. If somebody was attacking you, how many bullets would you fire?" Beerman said. "Right. If somebody was trying to run you over, would you fire one, two, or would you fire until they stopped doing what they're doing?"Beerman also noted that there were lines of people around the scene watching and recording video at the time the van was seen ramming the patrol vehicles."And that's the only thing that stopped this. He rammed three separate patrol cars, one in the beginning and two later. So had they not done that and he was able to get through, all those people that are asking that question that were lined up over here and ran a couple of them over, they would have been asking why didn't they use deadly force to stop him," Beerman said.Manteca police have yet to officially identify the man who was shot. It is also not known if he survived his gunshot wounds.See news happening? Send us your photos or videos if it’s safe to do so at kcra.com/upload.See more coverage of top California stories here | Download our app | Subscribe to our morning newsletter | Find us on YouTube here and subscribe to our channel
