San Benito County Sheriff Eric Taylor took to social media Thursday to lash out at bystanders who record police encounters and critics of law enforcement, following a violent Wednesday crime spree that ended with a suspect dead and a police officer wounded.
The remarks came after an armed carjacking suspect led police on a chase that spurred two gunfights in Hollister and a shootout in downtown San Jose, where the suspect was killed and a police sergeant was grazed in the head by a bullet.
In a Facebook video posted Thursday, Taylor admonished people he said were encroaching on an active firefight Wednesday afternoon between San Benito County deputies and 30-year-old Mohamed Husien in Hollister. It was the second shootout involving Husien in the city: Minutes earlier, he exchanged gunfire with Hollister police officers about 200 yards down the street. No one was hit in either shooting.
After summarizing the encounters, Taylor responded to what he called “keyboard warriors who are disrespecting the men and women of local law enforcement” on social media, and said the criticism is partly responsible for his agency’s retention struggles.
“One of the main reasons that cops flock to communities and stay there is directly tied to the amount of support that community gives them. I’m not sure how many of you were almost murdered at work yesterday. But I know one of my guys was,” Taylor said. “We all get that in this job, we have to have thick skin. But many of the comments came from people who really should know better. And those people still felt the need to opine on the actions and the abilities of our local law enforcement from the comfort and safety of their own living room.”
Taylor later turned his focus to bystanders who he said got too close to the shooting and created safety issues that his deputies had to account for in addition to trying to stop and arrest Husien.
“To all of you who suddenly feel that it’s okay in our society to walk into and amongst active crime scenes that are evolving that even include gunfire just so you can get some likes on your Facebook live feed, I have asked my staff or directed my staff to stop trying to herd you all to safety,” Taylor said. “They need to focus on the threat that’s in front of them and they need to stop trying to help defiant people who want to argue that it’s their right to be allowed in the crossfire of these rapidly evolving situations.”
He continued: “If this continues, I’m sure that some of you will be injured or killed. Bullets can be very unforgiving after leaving a firearm.”
But Taylor’s remarks quickly drew criticism from civil liberties advocates and media scholars, who said his comments risked undermining public safety and the public’s right to document police activity.
Taylor’s monologue was met with pointed concern from Nolan Higdon, a lecturer at Cal State East Bay who studies history and media.
“Refusing to protect people because they enter a crime scene is not a decision he gets to make,” Higdon said. “You protect people in … the immediate vicinity if you’re a police officer.”
Higdon added that bystander videos have been a vital counterbalance to police abuses, pointing to the 2020 murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer that became notorious only after a citizen’s video contradicted an initial police account.
Higdon said the sheriff’s remarks against members of the public strike a “larger, darker” chord, given the backdrop of federal authorities in high-profile immigration sweeps facing questions about possibly operating outside established law.
“It’s also just bad timing, given the sense around the country about that issue right now, to put out a video like this,” Higdon said.
David Loy, legal director at the San Rafael-based First Amendment Coalition, said the First Amendment generally guarantees the right to record events of public concern in a public place, including police operations.
But, he said, “The First Amendment does not necessarily guarantee people a right to be protected from the consequences of their own mistakes if they do in fact put themselves in danger.”
“If there is a fast-moving conflict between an officer and a fugitive or an officer and someone who is shooting at an officer, I can understand officers need to make very difficult split-second decisions in some circumstances,” Loy said.
Husien, a Davis resident barred from legally possessing firearms because of a prior felony conviction, had been wanted by authorities since Jan. 17 in connection with a string of carjackings and robberies across Sacramento, the Peninsula and San Jose.
Authorities said he was first linked that day to the theft of a red Chevrolet Corvette in Sacramento and to robberies at a minimart and a San Jose liquor store. The following day, he was suspected of additional robberies on the Peninsula and again in San Jose.
He was initially spotted in the stolen Corvette in San Jose on Wednesday, but police lost track of him and later found the car abandoned. Around 2 p.m., authorities said, Husien was reported to have taken a green Corvette at gunpoint from a car lot on Capitol Expressway and was followed by a police helicopter as he drove to Hollister.
After the shootouts with police and deputies there, he commandeered another car at gunpoint and drove back toward San Jose — reportedly firing at California Highway Patrol officers along the way — before crashing into another vehicle near Notre Dame Avenue and West Julian Street.
Soon after, authorities said, he rushed a police sergeant who had just arrived and opened fire, touching off a close-range gunfight in which the sergeant was grazed in the head by a bullet.
As eyewitnesses, police body cameras and a police helicopter recorded the scene, Husien briefly got into the sergeant’s police SUV before running off as dozens of gunshots were fired.
Video shows Husien falling to the ground, and moments later being driven over by a police SUV, which was followed by another volley of police gunfire.
Husien was pronounced dead at the scene. The wounded sergeant required surgery for a skull fracture and was released the next day.
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