Santa Rosa man fatally shot by police had been deported, but returned

Santa Rosa police on Tuesday released the names of the three officers who responded to the fatal incident without saying which one fired at the man.|

The knife-wielding man shot and killed by Santa Rosa police over the weekend was deported to Mexico after serving jail time in 2015, but according to a family member he returned within days to be near relatives and work in the vineyards in Healdsburg and Santa Rosa.

Court records show Pablo Garcia Garcia, 35, was arrested two years ago when he barged into a stranger’s house brandishing a kitchen knife in each hand and detained a mother and her children as they prepared for school.

He served about eight months in jail for the March 2015 incident on Rockwell Place, which occurred less than 3 miles from where he was killed Saturday morning at a house on West Steele Lane, according to the records.

Meanwhile, Santa Rosa police on Tuesday released the names of the three officers who responded to the incident without saying which one fired at Garcia. They are Nicholas Vlahandreas, hired in March from Scotts Valley with a total of three years experience; Jeffrey Badger, on the Santa Rosa force for two years; and Park McAllister, a nine-year law enforcement veteran who came from El Segundo in March and had worked in Stockton and Torrance.

All are on paid leave as part of standard procedure in officer-involved shootings, said Santa Rosa police Capt. Craig Schwartz.

An investigation by the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office is continuing.

Garcia was living in a room in the single-story house shared by other families at West Steele Lane and Iroquois Street when police were summoned to a report of a man “acting crazy.”

Officers arrived to find Garcia armed with a 12-inch kitchen knife and hiding under a mattress. He refused to come out despite attempts to subdue him with a Taser and pepper spray and was shot as he advanced on officers, police said.

Grieving family members were at a loss to explain the ?circumstances of his death.

“We still don’t know what happened,” said his niece, Elia Garcia, 18, of Healdsburg. “The detectives are still investigating.”

An autopsy was being performed Tuesday morning to determine where he was shot and how many bullets struck him.

Garcia had a warrant for his arrest for a probation violation at the time he was killed, sheriff’s Sgt. Spencer Crum said.

The west Santa Rosa home, which was shared by a number of Latino families, was the scene of a shooting into an inhabited dwelling in 2003 and a car theft in 2013, Crum said.

Early Saturday, police were summoned by two calls for help. Both reported a resident of the home was causing a disturbance.

The first officer arrived at 6:03 a.m., and two others came minutes later.

Officers found the man, later identified as Garcia, hiding beneath a bed about ?6:12 a.m. They requested backup because he was armed with a knife, according to police logs.

Officers ordered the man to surrender and drop the knife, but he ignored them, a Santa Rosa police statement said.

Garcia spoke English, Crum said.

Officers then deployed a Taser and pepper spray, but the nonlethal weapons didn’t work, and the man continued to advance on officers, according to police.

By 6:18 a.m., officers reported shots had been fired.

You can reach Staff Writer Paul Payne at 707-568-5312 or paul.payne@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @ppayne.

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