Video shows armed St. Luke's suspect robbing Big 5 store
SAN BRUNO, Calif. (KTVU) - Surveillance video released by San Bruno police Thursday shows the man SFPD later shot during a confrontation near St. Luke's Hospital holding up a Big 5 Sporting Goods store for a shotgun, according to authorities.
The video shows the suspect, identified earlier Thursday as 25-year-old Javier Ivan Lopez Garcia of San Jose, brandishing a black semi-automatic handgun at the Big 5 store located at 855 El Camino Real shortly before 4 p.m. Wednesday.
The suspect is seen speaking with store staff with the semi-automatic pistol in hand in the video. According to police, Garcia also produced a note demanding a shotgun.
"While the manager was taking down the shotgun from the rack, at that time, he brandished a handgun and said I'm taking the shotgun, I don't want any money. I'm taking the gun. Don't do anything funny or you'll get hurt. I am suicidal and I am not afraid to get shot," said San Bruno police spokesman Tim Mahon.
After taking a shotgun from the Big 5 employee behind the sales counter, Garcia is seen exiting the store.
Police in San Francisco began receiving calls about a man armed with a shotgun and handgun roaming the construction site next door to St. Luke's Hospital on Caesar Chavez at 4:15, less than a half an hour after Garcia took the shotgun from the San Bruno sporting goods store.
Responding officers heard shots being fired and came across a man, later identified as Garcia, standing on top of a construction elevator and pointing a rifle at the hospital.
Police said Garcia then lowered the rifle and pointed it down toward the officers. Three officers fired at Garcia, who died at the scene.
San Francisco Police Chief Greg Suhr said Wednesday night that San Bruno police inquired with SFPD about the incident by St. Luke's in connection with a robbery of the Big 5 store on El Camino Real.
"You got a hospital across the street, you got Cesar Chavez full of traffic. So, it's pretty much unbelievable that nobody else was more seriously hurt," Suhr said. "I think the big question that we're trying to get the answer to is why did he go to St. Luke's? I mean he does a robbery in another county, and then he travels directly up here."
SFPD will hold a town-hall meeting to discuss the incident with the public at St. Luke's Hospital Friday at 4 p.m.
Anyone with information related to this crime is encouraged to call the San Bruno Police Department at (650) 616-7100. Information can also be provided anonymously by email to sbpdtipline@sanbruno.ca.gov.