DA clears Richmond, Oakland police for killing man who left woman for dead

RICHMOND, Calif. - The Contra Costa County District Attorney's Office on Thursday cleared the officers in the fatal shooting of a man who left a woman for dead in the East Bay hills.

District Attorney Diana Becton and her office had been handling an independent investigation into the death of 24-year-old Juan Ayon-Barraza of Vallejo who was shot and killed by police on April 16, 2020.

The district attorney's office determined Thursday that the officers' actions were reasonable under the totality of the circumstances.

Five Oakland officers and a cop from the Richmond Police Department fired at Ayon-Barraza as he pointed a firearm at them while attempting to escape after a chase from Oakland to Richmond, authorities said.

Ayon-Barraza was a suspect in an attempted murder of a 29-year-old woman who had been reported missing in Vallejo.

Concerned family members reported that the woman was last seen with Ayon-Barraza.

The victim told family members she was going to have breakfast with him, but a short time later Ayon-Barraza called the victim's family and made an "unsettling comment," authorities said previously.

A relative of the missing woman confronted Ayon-Barraza on April 16 about her whereabouts, but he only replied that "something bad" happened, the district attorney's office said.

That same day a bicyclist riding on Pinehurst Road between Moraga and Oakland saw a sedan blocking the roadway with a white van ahead of the car. As the cyclist passed the vehicles, a man, later determined to be Ayon-Barraza, was seen dumping what appeared to be a woman’s body off the edge of the roadway.

The cyclist placed a 911 call to report what they had witnessed.

Oakland and Moraga police officers, along with Contra Costa sheriff's deputies responded to the area where they found an unresponsive woman suffering from at least one gunshot wound. Investigators determined she was the same woman reported missing earlier from Vallejo.

Officers located a vehicle matching the description of the white van involved in the incident and attempted to pull it over, but the vehicle did not stop, police said. A 20-minute pursuit ensued through Oakland city streets, onto the freeway, and ended in Richmond.

During the freeway pursuit, Ayon-Barraza waved a gun twice at officers, Becton said.

Once in Richmond, Ayon-Barraza rammed his van into a patrol car at South 37th Street near Carlson Boulevard, authorities said. One officer was hit by the van, and another officer was trapped in the patrol car.

Police fired at Ayon-Barraza multiple times as he drove his van into another police vehicle, causing severe injuries to another officer. That’s when another officer fired two rounds at the back of Ayon-Barraza’s van, hitting him and fatally injuring him.

He was pronounced dead at the scene.

The woman who had been wounded in the April 16 attack, died more than a month later from her injuries, according to the Mercury News Group.