On a quiet Thursday resting on his Pomona cattle farm, a 46-year-old former soldier’s routine was upended by a violent encounter that left him wounded, his beloved guard dog dead, and still no explanation for what prompted the incident more than a week later, according to the farmer’s first public account of the confrontation.
The farmer told reporters he was napping near an equipment shed when his constant companion – his working guard dog – began barking frantically to alert him of approaching strangers. When he jumped to his feet, he found three men with weapons drawn, all pointing their guns directly at him and shouting for him to raise his hands. What made the situation terrifying, he recalled, was that none of the men wore uniforms, displayed police badges, or identified themselves as law enforcement before issuing commands. For the farmer, the scenario matched a classic armed farm robbery, a risk that many rural property owners prepare for.
Drawing on his military training, the farmer quickly assessed his options. He carried a licensed personal firearm in his pocket, but with three armed assailants already aiming at him, he judged that drawing his weapon immediately would guarantee fatal consequences. He chose to run for safety, with the decision rooted in pure self-preservation: he resolved to only return fire if he was first struck, a choice he says saved his life.
As he ran, the armed men opened fire, and a bullet struck the farmer, knocking him to the ground. Following his pre-planned reaction, he pulled out his licensed weapon and returned fire toward the men. The exchange of gunfire forced the three unidentified men to retreat, the farmer says. Only after the shooting stopped did one of the men finally approach and reveal he was a police officer.
“I want justice – this is completely unfair,” the farmer stated in his account of the encounter. “I told the officer who approached me not to come near me: he was the one who shot me.”
To date, the farmer says law enforcement has not offered any explanation for why officers arrived at his property with weapons drawn that day, nor have they clarified what operation they were conducting that led to the confrontation. The tragedy also extends beyond the farmer’s injury: his dog, who first alerted him to the approaching men and stayed by his side through all his daily work on the farm, was killed in the police gunfire.
The case has highlighted ongoing concerns about the risks of unmarked plainclothes police operations in rural areas, where property owners often prepare for criminal robbery and may have no way to distinguish armed intruders from undercovered law enforcement in the moments before a confrontation.