Pittsburg police offer new details on shooting inside police station with smuggled gun

By Carlos E. Castañeda

The Pittsburg Police Department on Tuesday acknowledged security lapses that led to a shooting inside the department’s booking area last week, while providing new details on the injured officer’s efforts to disarm the suspect.

The shooting happened on Sept. 3 after officers arrived to take a suspect from a holding cell to the county jail. The suspect produced a gun after not being properly searched, and during the struggle the gun was fired, injuring both the suspect and an officer.

On Tuesday, Pittsburg police identified the suspect as 31-year-old Michael Sanchez Gardner Martin, who had been arrested for driving a stolen vehicle and outstanding felony warrants. Martin was searched at the time of his arrest and a second time after being taken to the police station; during both searches, the same officer failed to locate a gun hidden in his clothing, according to a press statement from Chief Phil Gaier.

“That was a serious failure. We acknowledge it, and it will be thoroughly examined through an administrative investigation,” Gaier said. “We will determine how it happened and take immediate corrective action to prevent it from happening again.”

The investigation showed that after Martin was placed in the holding cell, he hid the firearm inside a toilet, retrieving it hours later and hiding it under a jail blanket as he awaited being taken to the county jail, Gaier said. The officer who was shot was identified as Jimmy Sanchez, a four-and-a-half year veteran of the department who was not the arresting officer. 

Gaier said that when Sanchez arrived, Martin asked him for water, saying he was not feeling well. After Sanchez arrived with the water, Martin attacked him, punching the officer in the face, throwing the blanket over his head and repeatedly hitting him in the head with the firearm, Gaier said.

As the officer and the suspect struggled, the gun was fired, with the preliminary evidence showing the bullet passing through the suspect’s thigh and into the officer’s abdomen, Gaier said. Sanchez continued fighting with Martin even after he was shot, preventing Martin from firing another round and giving other officers time to respond and disarm him. 

“While the firearm should have never been allowed to make it into our booking facility, it was Martin who knowingly concealed, retrieved and then utilized that firearm to ambush, violently assault and ultimately try to take the life of one of our officers. That distinction matters and I do not want legitimate criticism of a failure of a young officer’s search to overshadow that fact,” Gaier said. “Officer Sanchez did not survive because Martin stopped his attack or decided to change course. Officer Sanchez survived because he refused to give up. He survived because he fought through a brutal attack, a gunshot wound, and because he and his fellow officers physically ripped a gun away from Martin’s hands.”  

Martin was treated at a hospital and released and booked later the same day on multiple felony charges including attempted murder of a police officer. Sanchez underwent surgery for his injuries and was expected to recover. A second officer was treated for minor injuries during the scuffle. 

The Contra Costa County District Attorney’s Office was also investigating the shooting.