Police shoot man threatening daughter outside station; What led to the incident

By Rosemary Wright and Christian Balderas

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    WATSONVILLE, California (KSBW) — The Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office and Watsonville Police Department are investigating what events led up to a shooting and the discovery of a missing woman’s body.

Saturday night, Joshua Gonzalez drove into the parking lot of the Watsonville Police Station. Armed with a knife, Gonzalez contacted the dispatch center at 9:19 p.m. and threatened to harm his 3-year-old daughter.

The first officer to arrive at the scene repeatedly directed Gonzalez to drop his weapon. Police say it was then that Gonzales charged at the officer, who opened fire on Gonzalez. The officer fired five shots.

Shortly after the shooting, a road closure was placed for the area around the police station, and Gonzalez was transported to an out-of-county trauma center. Gonzalez is being charged with attempted murder of a peace officer, assault on a peace officer and child endangerment.

While police have confirmed Gonzalez did sustain at least one gunshot wound, it is unclear how many times the man was hit, or where. He is in stable condition.

“It’s not practical to use any other force than what the officer used at that time,” said Watsonville police Chief Jorge Zamora. “To save his own live, that individual’s life, and the child.”

During the shooting, the 3-year-old daughter remained inside the vehicle Gonzalez was driving. The child was unharmed.

“It was the middle of the night. Things were moving quickly, and I just heard a little girl crying. It’s enough to make me choke up,” Zamora shared in an emotional account of Saturday night’s events. “I can only imagine how difficult it might be for her.”

Police say concerns about the 3-year-old’s mother were raised when the department began trying to make arrangements for the child after the incident involving Gonzalez. When law enforcement was unable to contact the woman, 25-year-old Lizbeth Arceo Sedano, the child was placed with Sedano’s mother.

After 6 a.m. on Sunday, the Watsonville Police Department issued a statement expressing “serious concerns” about Sedano’s safety and calling on the public for help locating the missing woman.

Just a few hours later, around 9:40 a.m., Santa Cruz County sheriffs recovered Sedano’s body on Eureka Canyon Road and Grizzly Flat Road. She was found dead by a hiker.

A three-fold multiagency effort is in progress to investigate the sequence of events between Saturday night and Sunday morning.

Zamora explained that the sheriff’s office investigates the discovery of Sedano’s body, and the district attorney’s office conducts the internal investigation of the shooting.

Separately, the police department handles the criminal investigation of Gonzalez’s actions in front of the police station.

“It’s easy for anyone to make an assumption that these two things are connected,” Zamora said about the discovery of Sedano’s body. “What I want to caution is we have to let the investigations take their place.”

Sedano’s friend of 10 years, Mia Bermudez, spoke out about the young mother’s death — remembering Sedano as “funny” and “outgoing.”

“She was a very dedicated mother,” Bermudez said. “She was proud to be a mom, proud of her daughter.”

Bermudez went on to express her regret that they will never share playdates with their daughters as they had imagined as teens.

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