Police Identify Officers Involved in Monday’s Shooting

Pasadena Police Chief Phillip L. Sanchez has identified Pasadena Police Officers Ken Florendo and Alex Torres as the officers involved in a shooting incident Monday in which police say a suspect fired at least one round from a handgun towards the officers and they returned fire.

Officer Florendo, a 5-year veteran who had never before been involved in a shooting, is now recovering from an injury he sustained to his face as a result of the incident, police say.

Officer Torres is a 6-year veteran of the Pasadena Police Department, who, like Florendo, has been  assigned to the department’s Special Enforcement Section for the last 2 years.

Torres was involved in one prior officer involved shooting in September, 2007, in which Torres shot an assailant who was stabbing his estranged wife.  This assailant died but his wife was saved despite suffering life threatening wounds, police say.

Monday’s incident began  during a traffic stop about 7 pm in the area of Mentor Avenue and Mountain Street, officials say. An unidentified man approached Officers Florendo and Torres, saying someone was going to shoot him, police report.

The officers say they quickly followed the victim a short distance to the nearby CVS parking lot. At that time, they were fired upon by a single suspect. The officers returned fire but apparently did not hit the suspect, who fled in a vehicle.

Officers located the suspect’s vehicle approximately ten minutes later in the 1000 block of Chester Avenue and arrested Sherwin Williams, 44, of Fontana.  Williams reportedly was booked on suspicion of attempted murder and held in Los Angeles on $4 million bail.

Speaking about the incident, Chief Sanchez said, “In every violent encounter wherein the use of force is required, police officers are forced to make split second decisions.  In this incident, these officers placed themselves in harm’s way to protect the life of a citizen, by engaging an armed assailant who had fired his gun at them.  I am extremely thankful that despite the violent actions of the suspect; the citizen, neither officer, nor the suspect himself was seriously injured as a result of this encounter.”