“It was my understanding that it just kind of helped him stay calm and not have any problems,” said Galipo, adding French had no history of violence and that family members have described him as gentle and non-verbal.ĭr. It was not clear what medications he had been taking or when he stopped taking them.

He had been taken off his medication due to other health complications, which may have affected his behavior Friday night, Galipo said. Galipo said he’d been told the officer identified himself as a policeman before he shot.įrench, 32, of Riverside, lived with his parents and family members believe he suffered from schizophrenia, Galipo said. Galipo said family members say “the father was trying to intercede and explain to the officer that his son had a mental disability” when shots rang out. When he came to, Winslow said, “he believed his life and his son’s life was in immediate danger” and fired his handgun. “It wasn’t an innocent push,” Winslow said Tuesday. The officer’s attorney, David Winslow, told the AP on Monday that the officer was holding his 1½-year-old son when French knocked him to the ground and he briefly lost consciousness. “It certainly does not justify killing someone.” Left behind inside the store were purses, cellphones and backpacks from panicked shoppers, Corona police said.“I would hardly characterize it as an attack,” Galipo told The Associated Press, describing it as an “open-handed push or slap” to the policeman’s back. The station reported that more than 100 people were outside the store at one point. Witnesses told KCAL-TV that shoppers and employees rushed to the exits. “An employee came in and helped us out through the emergency exit.” “I thought maybe someone dropped a bottle of wine, but then I kept hearing shots,” shopper Will Lungo told the Press-Enterprise newspaper. She said her mother saw people injured on the floor. The Los Angeles Police Department said in a statement Saturday afternoon that it has launched its own investigation of the incident.Ĭhristina Colis told the Riverside Press-Enterprise that she was in the produce area when she heard six to seven shots and hid with other shoppers in a refrigerated produce room. In the video, her daughter says, “Mommy, we need to go.” Everything was happening so fast, I just wanted to get me and my kid to safety.” “I didn’t know if this was a random thing or a domestic thing or if this was a mass shooting.

“I saw people and heard shots and my first though was ‘Jesus, is this another mass shooting?'” she said. They huddled until they were able to escape through a side door. Tate said Saturday she was by the meat section when she heard “about six or seven shots.” She dropped to the ground and crawled toward her daughter who was at the other end. Shrieks from inside the store were heard on video recorded by shopper Nikki Tate, who had stopped by with her daughter to pick up steaks and lobsters for Father’s Day. Shoppers and employees described terror and chaos when shots rang out shortly before 8 p.m. The man involved in the argument was killed, Corona police Lt. Witnesses said they saw a man with a Mohawk haircut arguing with someone near a freezer section when shots rang out at least six times. The shooting prompted a stampede of frightened shoppers to flee the store east of Los Angeles and seek cover inside. The officer was the only person who fired shots in the store, the department said. The officer, whose identity is being withheld, was treated and released at a nearby hospital, and the officer’s child was not injured, the department said. The relatives are in critical conditions at hospitals. The officer fired his gun, hitting French and two of French’s relatives, the department said.įrench was killed, the department said. Kenneth French, 32, of Riverside assaulted the Los Angeles Police Department officer Friday night while he was holding his young child, the department said in a statement Saturday. An off-duty police officer opened fire inside a Costco Wholesale warehouse store, killing a man who had attacked him and wounding two others, the Corona Police Department said. Please look at the time stamp on the story to see when it was last updated.ĬORONA, Calif. This is an archived article and the information in the article may be outdated.

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