Watsonville Police Officer Shoots Armed Suspect Charging With Knife

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Watsonville, California — On Saturday, August 3, 2024, at 9:19 p.m. a man called the Santa Cruz Regional 911 Dispatch Center to report that he was armed with a knife and that he was going to hurt his three-year-old stepdaughter. The first responding officer from the Watsonville Police Department arrives at the front parking lot of the police station when the man was still on the phone with the dispatch center. As soon as the officer stepped out of his patrol car he ordered the man to drop the knife he was holding. However, the suspect ignored his commands and charged at the Officer, who in return fired five shots from his department-issued weapon, injuring the suspect. The first responding officer reports the shooting over his radio. Additional officers rush to the scene.

They first ensured the suspect no longer had any weapons, cuffed him as part of standard safety procedure and then proceeded to render aid. The suspect, 25-year-old Joshua Gonzalez was struck by gunfire multiple times. He was transported to an out-of-county trauma center for his injuries. His three-year-old stepdaughter was unharmed and was placed under the care of her mother's family. Through the course of the investigation, WPD officers filed a Missing Persons Report for 25-year-old Lizbeth Arceo Sedano, Gonzalez's partner. About 12 hours after the officer-involved shooting, the Santa Cruz County Sheriff's Department recovered Lizbeth's body near Eureka Canyon Road and Grizzly Flat Road.