Details emerge from Manteca officer-involved shooting fatality

MANTECA -- Police released more details Thursday about a confrontation involving an officer who shot to death a 34-year-old man reportedly carrying a weapon during a traffic stop the night before about two blocks north of East Yosemite Avenue.

Manteca police have not said what type of weapon the suspect was carrying.

Ernest Manuel Duenez Jr. was the man shot by police Wednesday night in the 200 block of Flores Avenue, according to officer Jason Hensley, a Manteca police spokesman. Duenez was taken by ambulance to Doctors Hospital of Manteca, where he was pronounced dead.

Hensley said the Manteca police officer involved in the shooting was not injured and has been with the department for 10 years. The department has not released his name.

The shooting occurred about 6:45 p.m. after the officer made the traffic stop. Hensley said Duenez was a passenger in the vehicle that was pulled over.

The vehicle was pulled over because the officer had knowledge that Duenez, a wanted parolee, was inside the vehicle and considered armed and dangerous.

Hensley said Duenez got out of the vehicle armed with a weapon and approached the officer. He said the officer, fearing for his life, responded with deadly force.

He said Duenez had prior convictions for burglary, statutory rape, possession of controlled substances, felony evading arrest, vehicle theft, possession of a stolen vehicle, assault with a deadly weapon and participating in a criminal street gang.

The department is investigating the shooting and will be submitting the case to the San Joaquin County district attorney's office for review to determine whether the shooting was justified.

This is the third officer-involved shooting in the Modesto area this year.

• On May 25, a Modesto Police Department officer shot and killed a suspected robber. Police say the Modesto man held up a clerk at a nearby convenience store on Coffee Road and tried to escape into a residential neighborhood.

• On March 19, an off-duty California Highway Patrol officer shot and killed a 19-year-old man in east Modesto after he escaped from Doctors Behavioral Health Center and tried to break into nearby homes.

Bee staff writer Rosalio Ahumada can be reached at rahumada@modbee.com or (209) 578-2394.