EL CAJON, Calif. — Authorities released their initial report detailing the moments before and after a San Diego County bounty hunter got shot in the face Friday.
Jesse Nunez, a bail bond agent with a company called Fugitive Warrants, was up and about and spoke to reporters within hours of the shooting at a vacant business in El Cajon. Police said in a news release late Friday that they interviewed Nunez and his partner about the incident and that investigators continue to search for additional information.
Law enforcement first got involved around 4:15 p.m. when someone from the bond agency called El Cajon Police Department to report one of their agents suffered a head wound in a shooting at an abandoned business, ECPD Lt. Will Guerin wrote in the news release. Earlier, the agency called to notify authorities that they were headed over to the building to search for a fugitive.
Police swarmed the building, located on the corner of Lexington and Sunshine avenues, and found the two bounty hunters outside, one of them bleeding from the face. “Two El Cajon Police officers drove a marked patrol vehicle onto the property and rescued the injured agent,” Guerin wrote.
Nunez suffered what police referred to as a “through-and-through” wound, meaning a bullet entered and exited the man’s body when he was shot. He was taken to a Heartland Fire and Rescue station nearby for medical treatment and eventually transferred to a hospital.
Nunez would later tell 619 News Media that the bullet went through his cheek and hit his ear.
Police say Nunez and his partner entered the vacant building looking for a wanted subject but ended up finding someone else inside. That man “became confrontational with them,” according to Guerin, and the agents say they shot him with a Taser when he started to reach for a gun. The man then tackled Nunez and started hitting him, eventually shooting him in the face.
Nunez’s partner told authorities he used his Taser to get the man off his colleague. The two then ran out of the building.
While medics cared for Nunez, El Cajon police surrounded the building and parked an armored vehicle outside the front door, Guerin wrote. Officers called out to anyone still inside the building, ordering them to surrender.
A man emerged with Taser darts embedded in his upper body and was taken into custody. While an investigation into what exactly happened in the building is ongoing, that man was booked into jail when officers discovered he had an active felony arrest warrant, Guerin said.
Police did not find a gun on the man who they arrested, and it wasn’t clear exactly who or what remained inside the building, Guerin wrote. Officers used a tactical robot from the sheriff’s Bomb Arson Unit to ensure the building was safe. The department’s helicopter also flew overhead.
Officers eventually headed inside and found no one else in the abandoned business. “It appeared multiple squatters have been living inside the building,” the lieutenant wrote. “Detectives and officers conducted a search of the building and located evidence related to the incident.”
Nunez told 619 News Media that the original fugitive was never taken into custody.
Anyone with information about the shooting or the people involved was asked to call ECPD at 619-579-3311.
