It took one second for a Southern California cop to shoot and kill a Black teenager who was running away from another teen who had been shooting at him.
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‘Whoa!’: San Diego Cop Shoots Black Teen to Death As Boy Was Running for Safety from Another Shooting, Video Shows
Posted by By Carlos Miller Published on: February 25, 2025
It took one second for a Southern California cop to shoot and kill a Black teenager who was running away from another teen who had been shooting at him.
San Diego police say they found a gun concealed under the teen’s clothing after shooting him, but body camera footage released Friday shows the teen never threatened police with the gun, nor was he even holding the gun in his hands.
In fact, San Diego police officer Daniel Gold never even gave him a chance to surrender before opening fire. And he did not even identify himself as a cop until after he had shot the teen, yelling out “San Diego police” once the teen was doubled over on the street, crying out in pain.
A San Diego police officer shot and killed a Black teen as he was running away from another man who had been shooting at him. (Photo: Body camera)
And it is also obvious from the video and the police narrative that Gold did not even know if the teen he had shot and killed was involved in a prior “shots fired” call that police were investigating.
San Diego police have not released the teen’s name but said they have arrested another 16-year-old boy who had been shooting at the teen at a train station, which is what prompted him to run away for his safety – only for him to be killed by police.
“While it’s never easy to watch this kind of footage, our department remains committed to transparency and ensuring a fair, thorough, independent investigation,” San Diego Police Chief Scott Wahl said in a statement, according to the
San Diego Union-Tribune.
Watch the video below, which includes security footage from the train station as well as body camera footage:
The Initial Shooting
The incident took place just shortly before 9 p.m. on Jan. 28 at the Santa Fe Depot, a Union train station in downtown San Diego.
Police say they were responding to an unrelated 911 call of an assault and battery when one cop standing on the west side of the train station reported on his radio that he had heard gunshots.
Gold was on the east side of the station, walking south on the sidewalk, when he heard the call for shots fired, prompting him to turn back and start running north on the sidewalk.
Meanwhile, the teen was running through a corridor from the west side of the station to the east side when he emerged onto the sidewalk, directly in front of Gold, who already had his gun drawn.
“Whoa,” yelled out Gold while opening fire before yelling, “San Diego police.” Gold then appears to turn off his body camera.
Police later told local media that Gold opened fire after he had “encountered” the teen and also said that “a firearm was located concealed under clothing in the juvenile’s right-thigh area.”
But that still does not justify the shooting under existing law.
Like many law enforcement agencies in the country, San Diego police has a long history of racially profiling the city’s Black population, which is less than 6 percent.
An investigation by local media in 2019 determined Black people are
five times more likely to be prosecuted for minor drug charges compared to white or Hispanic people.
And last year, Atlanta Black Star reported on incidents showing San Diego police allowing a police dog to
maul a Black man who had his hands in the air as well as
shattering a Black man’s car window after he refused to let them search his car after pulling him over for running a stop sign.
And this practice of racial profiling has been in existence for decades, according to the
ACLU of San Diego and Imperial Counties:
“Across the nation, and here in San Diego and Imperial counties, patterns of racial and identity profiling, the selective enforcement of laws against people of color and the disproportionate use of stops and searches on communities of color illustrate the systemic bias and racism present in policing practices.
Countless stories from community members as well as years-worth of data analysis confirm this deeply troubling issue.
Given racial and identity disparities in whom police stop, search, arrest, use force upon and kill, we need bold and transformational solutions that address these issues comprehensively.
We need to drastically reduce the role, responsibilities and presence of police in the everyday lives of communities.
We need to divest from police budgets and deepen our investment of money and resources in community services and non-law enforcement interventions.”
Security Video Footage
Security video from the train station shows the teenager walking with another male on a train corridor before the second male crosses the tracks to walk to the other side of the platform.
Left alone, the teen then approached two individuals who had been standing on the same platform and words were apparently exchanged but the video contains no audio.
Police slowed that portion of the video down to 50 percent, and it shows the teen appearing to reach into his right pocket when one of the two individuals pulls out a gun and begins firing, prompting the teen to run away.
Police have not explained a possible motive behind the first shooting but say they arrested the shooter on February 6 but have not released his name because he is also 16 years old.
The shooter and the other person ran north while the Black teen ran south and into the corridor of the train station.
The Black teen was shot within one second of emerging from the corridor onto the sidewalk on the other side of the building. And he was pronounced dead at a local hospital.
“As of right now, this is our only suspect, the one we’re going medical work on right now,” one of the cops can be heard saying on the video while attempting to revive the teen after he had been shot.
The shooting is being investigated by the San Diego Sheriff’s Office under a county policy that restricts law enforcement agencies from investigating their own officers.
It is still not clear if police ever responded to the initial 911 call for assault and battery.
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