Man With Garden Tool Fatally Shot by Police Identified

A man who was fatally shot by two Union City police officers on Monday night after he allegedly charged at them with a garden tool was identified by police today as 29-year-old Hayward resident Vasilios Alexander Katsouras.

Union City police said officers responded to the 3800 block of Amy Place at about 10:20 p.m. Monday after a resident who lives there reported that a stranger was in her backyard and was pounding on her bedroom window. Two officers responded and located a man, identified today as Katsouras, with a “claw-style” garden tool in the backyard of the home, police said.

The officers ordered Katsouras multiple times to drop the tool, but he didn’t comply and instead charged at them with it, prompting both officers to shoot him because they feared for their lives and wanted to stop the threat, according to police. Katsouras dropped his weapon and officers gave him first aid until paramedics arrived, but he was pronounced dead at the scene, police said.

The officers were wearing body-worn cameras that captured the shooting, but police said the videos will not be released while the case is an active investigation. In addition to the investigation by Union City police, the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office is conducting an independent investigation of the incident.

Union City police said anyone with information about the case is asked to contact Detective Krista Fraga at (510) 675-5266 or kfraga@unioncity.org or an anonymous police tip line at (510) 675-5207 or tips@unioncity.org.

Related:

• Union City Police Shoot Man to Death in Backyard

By Bay City News

Photo courtesy Union City Police