Last week, on October 15, at 3:41 in the afternoon, Milpitas Police Department (MPD) officers found themselves in a violent encounter with the driver of a stolen car…
The theft of the vehicle had been reported to the San Jose Police Department earlier in the week, on October 11. On the 15th, MPD detectives approached it during an enforcement stop. The location was the Milpitas Square Shopping Center on Barber Lane.
There was only one occupant in the car. He began to step out from the driver’s side door. Then he looked at the officers and got back in.
He then began firing a gun at them.
The resulting gunfire from both directions went on for some time, ending with the suspect, Michael Edward Nelson, Jr., being injured and getting transported to a nearby hospital.
At the time, Nelson had no ID on him, but he was later identified through a fingerprint scan. It turned out he was on Post Release Community Supervision (PRCS), an alternative to parole for non-violent offenders, for having stolen the identities of multiple people.
Today, October 19, Nelson died at the hospital. He was 42 years old and was from Healdsburg. He was facing a variety of charges: attempted homicide on a Police Officer, felon in possession of a firearm, possession of an unregistered firearm, possession of high-capacity magazines, carrying a concealed firearm, violation of PRCS, and possession of a stolen vehicle.
The investigation is ongoing, and MPD body cam footage is forthcoming.
So, according to the article, the suspect was on Post Release Community Supervision. Apparently he wasn’t too well supervised if he had somehow managed to obtain a small arsenal of weapons.