Flowers and candles lined the base of the FoodsCo sign Thursday where Javier Garcia Gaona was shot and killed by Santa Maria police officers after he lunged at them with a knife the day before.
Gaona, 31, of Santa Maria, was identified by the Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Office Thursday. The agency is handling the shooting investigation at the request of the Santa Maria Police Department.
Gaona was killed after police were called to the intersection of S. Broadway and W. Enos Drive at 8:44 a.m. Wednesday following a report of a man shouting obscenities, holding a knife and making cutting motions to his throat and chest.
When police arrived they tried to negotiate with Gaona but those attempts failed. The officers then used bean bags and 40 millimeter round blunt impact projectiles which also failed to stop Gaona.
Santa Maria Police Chief Ralph Martin said that Gaona's family was notified of his death by police officials Wednesday afternoon.
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The county coroner's office is conducting a death investigation and an autopsy is scheduled for Monday.
An official cause of death is pending toxicology and lab results which will take several weeks to complete, sheriff's officials said.
Once the Sheriff's Office completes the shooting investigation the results will be forwarded to the Santa Barbara County District Attorney’s Office for review.
“There is a standing order in the county that the Sheriff’s Department will do a parallel investigation with the District Attorney’s Office who was here on scene and has sat in on all of the interviews. Not just the officers, but the spectator witnesses too. There were other witnesses there and they were all interviewed,” Martin said.
Logan B. Anderson covers city government in Santa Maria for Lee Central Coast Newspapers. Follow him on Twitter: @LoganBAnderson.
