Witnesses tell of police shooting at 7-Eleven

Last week’s deadly police shooting in Newport Beach started with a standoff at a convenience store and ended when the suspect inside wielded scissors as he approached officers outside of the building, witnesses told the Daily Pilot.

Police have released limited details on the shooting, but two direct witnesses, neighbors and a nearby business owner told the Pilot what they saw and heard on May 29.

About 8:15 that night, police responded to a 911 call at a 7-Eleven near Superior and Placentia avenues.

A man, later identified as 22-year-old Gerrit Vos of San Clemente, had been in a scuffle with the two clerks at the store, police said.

Newport Beach resident Eric Worrell said he was walking his dog near the store when he saw an officer interviewing the two employees.

Vos had cut one of the clerks, possibly with the scissors, before hiding in a small office behind the 7-Eleven’s front counter, Worrell said.

More than a dozen officers responded to the scene, watching the front doors and surrounding the small, one-story building, according to Worrell and Nick Fesler, a limousine driver who was watching from his car nearby.

Worrell described an officer briefly entering the store and crouching near the counter before retreating back outside where police took cover behind their cars in the parking lot and faced the store’s doors.

“This went on for over 20 minutes,” Fesler said.

At some point, Vos came out of the office, walked to the back of the store, where he turned around and sprinted toward the front door, Worrell said.

He was holding a pair of scissors with his hands raised above his head, according to Worrell.

“I do know that I saw, for a fact, his hands in the air as he was running toward the cops,” he said.

Both Worrell and Fesler reported hearing four or five shots as Vos reached the front door. Fesler described the shots as evenly spaced, fired one-by-one.

Until that point, the scene had been nearly silent, said Fesler, who was pulling around the corner of the 7-Eleven to get a better view as the gunfire started.

“When those five shots went off, it scared me,” he said. “I yelled.”

Fesler said he saw Vos lying on the sidewalk at the store’s front doors. He described paramedics quickly holding gauze against Vos’ head.

“The white gauze was no longer white,” Fesler said. “It was filling up with blood very fast.”

Vos died just after 10:15 p.m. at Western Medical Center in Santa Ana, according to the Orange County coroner’s office.

Newport Beach police said last week that officers tried to use less-lethal force to subdue Vos, but spokeswoman Jennifer Manzella declined to elaborate.

Worrell said he is familiar with some nonlethal weapons used in law enforcement because he has spent time in jail, but didn’t see officers use any them against Vos. Worrell pleaded guilty to six felony drug or weapons charges in Orange County in 2011 and 2012.

Police declined to comment on Worrell or Fesler’s descriptions of events.

The Orange County district attorney’s office is investigating to determine whether the Police Department’s use of deadly force was justified, as is routine in officer-involved shootings.

Through a family friend, Vos’ family declined to comment on the incident.

Orange County Sheriff’s deputies previously arrested Vos on felony cocaine- and heroin-possession charges in 2011 and 2012, but those charges were dismissed.

As part of the 2012 case, Vos pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge that he had metal knuckles on him.