CALIFORNIA DEPUTY SURVIVES AMBUSH IN THE NIGHT

‘It Was An Ambush’: Deputy’s Body Camera Takes Bullet In Shadowy Attack Near Santa Clara County Reservoir

LAPPL News Watch
February 4, 2020

Late Friday night, Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Deputy Sukhdeep Gill was on routine patrol near the Uvas Reservoir when he pulled his SUV over and got out to take a look around.

Not long after, he noticed a car approaching where he was standing on the side of Uvas Road, in unincorporated Morgan Hill. As it got closer, its headlights suddenly vanished.

Four gunshots quickly followed, with one round hitting Gill squarely in the chest. Fatefully, the bullet hit Gill’s body-worn camera, which itself was backed by his standard-issue body armor.

Dazed but still alert, he fired two rounds from his service pistol at his now-fleeing attacker.

“Shots fired! Shots fired!” Gill told emergency dispatchers, according to a recording released by the Sheriff’s Office. As dispatchers tried frantically to get more information from Gill over the radio, they were met with silence.

He had apparently fallen down an embankment. After two long minutes, he had made it back to the roadway, adrenaline still pumping through his veins.

Gill gave the dispatchers signs of life, saying, “I think I was hit,” into his radio.