Cops Shoot Man Chasing Kids in Park

Bloodied man was wielding bottle
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Mar 11, 2017 7:21 AM CST
Cops Shoot Man Chasing Kids in Park
Girls' soccer coach Jose Sanchez poses for a photo in his office in Huntington Beach, Calif. on Friday, March 10, 2017.   (Amy Taxin)

Jose Sanchez was coaching his soccer team of 13-year-old girls when a wild-eyed man began chasing children with what looked like a broken wine bottle at a California sports complex. People ran as the bloodied and shirtless man, later identified as 29-year-old Steven Schiltz, followed an adult soccer player over a 3-foot barrier and onto the field where the children were practicing Thursday night in Huntington Beach, Calif., Sanchez says. As screams filled the air and children climbed fences to escape, Schiltz moved toward a woman on the bleachers who apparently was frozen with fear. Two police officers opened fire, killing Schiltz. "One more second, and he would have struck her," Sanchez tells the AP.

Schiltz's mother, Angela Hernandez, told KCBS that her son had drug issues and was in a psychiatric ward last year. Court records show she took out a restraining order against him in 2013 and she said he threatened relatives with knives, baseball bats, pool sticks, and chairs. But Hernandez said she spoke to him hours before the shooting and he sounded fine. She accused the police of using excessive force. Schiltz was known to friends as "Steve-o" and was a baseball fan. At times, he lived on the streets, said Tom Hester, a homeless friend who said he saw Schiltz bicycling to the park just before the violence. "He had a drinking problem, and when he drank he got real violent," Hester says. (More California stories.)

Get the news faster.
Tap to install our app.
X
Install the Newser News app
in two easy steps:
1. Tap in your navigation bar.
2. Tap to Add to Home Screen.

X