CITRUS HEIGHTS-
Citrus Heights Police shot and killed a woman in her twenties Sunday, after she led them on a high-speed chase, ending at an apartment complex on Sunset Avenue in Fair Oaks.
“I got a call from my mom. She lives in the apartments and said she heard officers screaming to ‘get in your house’, and then she heard the gun shots,” Jolene Silva said.
Silva’s mother hid in her closet until the commotion stopped. She then told her daughter she saw the woman’s body lying in the entryway to their apartment complex.
Several residents said the woman police shot called herself Gabby Sanders, but that everyone knew her as Relly.
The Sacramento County Coroner identified the woman as Gabby Nevarez, however listed a family member with the last name of Sanders.
“I saw her hair. I recognized her face. They were pumping on her chest. She was struggling for life,” Osiris Williams said.
Williams said he and his friends hung out with Sanders frequently, that she was a nice girl, and had a four-year-old son.
Other friends of Sanders said the car she fled from police in belonged to her grandmother.
Police say they tracked the car through its LoJack monitoring system after it was reported stolen.
“When we made a call for more officers, the female became uncooperative and combative. She tried to flee the scene, and she did so by ramming one of the patrol cars with an officer inside of it,” said Bryan Fritsch with Citrus Heights Police.
Fritsch said three patrol cars chased the woman from near San Juan Avenue and Madison Avenue south to Sunset Avenue in Fair Oaks. She was traveling a speeds above 70 mph, and occasionally on the wrong side of the road, said Fritsch. When police stopped her the second time, they say she rammed another patrol car with an officer inside, prompting officers to open fire.
Sanders’ friends say even so, she did not deserve to be shot to death. Multiple bystanders report hearing anywhere from seven to 12 shots fired by two different officers.
“She rammed two patrol cars with officers inside. They feared for their lives. To say that officers overreacted, that’s just. I don’t even want to respond to that,” said Fritsch.
“She loved her grandmother. She didn’t do it to hurt her. She did it out of anger,” said one of Sanders’ friends.
The two officers involved in the shooting have been placed on administrative leave while the investigation is completed.
