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Suspect Surrenders After Losing Gunfight with Police
Published 2 years ago
Body worn camera video from March of 2022 released by the Fresno Police Department captures a tense standoff and gunfight between police and a person suspected of randomly firing into his neighbors apartment.
On Sunday, March 6, 2022, members of the Fresno Police Department responded to a report of gunfire in the 500 block of East Weldon Avenue. Officers made contact with the 9-1-1 caller at her apartment. The victim reported that her neighbor, who shared a wall with them, had fired a weapon inside of his apartment and that the rounds had passed through the shared wall. Officers found multiple bullet holes in the victim’s bedroom wall that came from the neighboring apartment to their east.
After a brief investigation, officers identified the occupant of the neighboring apartment as 48-year-old Michael Zavala. For the next 55-minutes, they attempted to get Zavala to surrender by using their lights, sirens, and cruiser's loudspeaker. Zavala exited his apartment multiple times, to yell expletives at the officers, but refused to surrender.
At around 4:10 am, Zavala opened fire with multiple shots from an AR pistol. The two responding officers returned fire at Zavala. After the initial fire, police called for more resources and Zavala once again opened fire on the police prompting them to once again return fire. Officers could hear Zavala yelling from inside the apartment that he had been shot in the back of the head. 30-minutes later, Zavala exited the apartment, and surrendered to officers. He was provided with first-aid at the scene of the incident before being transported to a nearby medical facility.
The man was charged with 9 counts of attempted murder, shooting into an occupied dwelling, illegal possession of a firearm, and with being an ex-felon in possession of a firearm. No officers or bystanders were injured in the shooting.
