Bodycam Video Shows Police Shooting of 16-Year-Old Boy During Confrontation in Carlsbad

Authorities released video Wednesday of a police shooting that left a 16-year-old boy with a non-life-threatening bullet wound last month during a late-night confrontation near Carlsbad State Beach.

The events that led to the law enforcement gunfire began at about 12:45 a.m. Sept. 9, when Officer Marcos Bocanegra of the Carlsbad Police Department spotted a white pickup truck being driven recklessly on a dirt lot next to the intersection of Carlsbad Boulevard and Palomar Airport Road, according to the CPD.

When Bocanegra pulled over and approached the vehicle on foot, he saw that one of the occupants had gotten out of it and was walking nearby.

With his uniform-worn camera recording the scene, the lawman directed the youth to re-enter the truck, and the boy complied, getting into a back seat in the extended-cab pickup. A second officer, meanwhile, arrived to provide backup for Bocanegra.

Spotting alcoholic beverages in the truck, the officers got permission from the driver to search it and began directing the occupants — an adult and four teenage boys — to get out one by one.

Moments later, a youth sitting in a front passenger seat exited the vehicle before being asked, then reached under the seat.

Despite the officers’ orders to stop what he was doing, the teen produced a gun and turned in the direction of Bocanegra, prompting the officer to open fire with a single round, police said.

Wounded, the teen ran off toward the ocean, still carrying the pistol, jumped off the top of a sea bluff near the water’s edge and tumbled down the steep slope. Officers gave chase, took the youth into custody and provided him with emergency care, including the use of a tourniquet, police said.

Paramedics took the boy to a hospital for treatment of a bullet wound to his right arm. After being released from medical care, he was booked into juvenile hall on assault and weapon charges. His name has been withheld because he is a minor.

Police say they found the unserialized ghost gun allegedly wielded during the confrontation on an ice plant-covered section of bluff near where the boy was apprehended.