Napa County is awesome. I mean other than the fact that it’s in California. It’s a beautiful area that’s home to some of my favorite wines. But now I have another reason to love it . . . that would be the Napa County Sheriff’s Office, and one deputy in particular. Riley Jarecki. A thug named Javier Hernandez Morales fired on Jarecki at point blank range but she kept her cool and unleashed a fusillade of gunfire into Morales that turned him into nothing more than a slab of human ballistic gelatin.
Update: Napa Sheriff’s Office says motorist who died after shooting at deputy had criminal record
The Napa County Sheriff’s Office published dramatic body camera footage Wednesday that shows part of a deputy’s fatal confrontation with a driver who shot at her.
Deputy Riley Jarecki noticed a car parked in the 1100 block of rural Henry Road at 10:59 p.m. Sunday, the Sheriff’s Office said. The graphic, 48-second video clip, first uploaded to YouTube, shows the deputy speaking with a man, Javier Hernandez Morales, seated behind the wheel.
Jarecki stood next to a red, parked car, and spoke with Hernandez Morales through a slightly open front window on the passenger’s side. The man permits her to look around. She shines her flashlight into the car and walks around the rear of the vehicle, approaching the driver’s side window.
The deputy then knocks on the front, driver’s side window.
“Roll it down,” Jarecki said.
Hernandez Morales hesitates, murmurs something to himself, and rolls down the window. In Spanish, Hernandez Morales asks, “What’s up?”
He points a gun at her and fires at least once. Jarecki radios that shots have been fired as the car’s rear lights flash. The ignition turns over and Jarecki, who appears to have retreated to the passenger side of the vehicle, fires numerous rounds toward the driver’s seat.
So let’s check it out. And hold onto your seats because I have to admit when I first watched this I had the volume up pretty loud and that first shot caught me by surprise and made me jump a little bit. 🙂
She radioed that shots had been fired at 11:05 p.m., the Sheriff’s Office said. Within minutes, social media was abuzz with locals listening to the police scanner.
The Sheriff’s Office held a news conference Wednesday afternoon for Bay Area media that provided new information about Sunday’s fatal encounter on a rural south Napa County road. The names of the deputy and the dead motorist were released for the first time.
Hernandez Morales, 43, is a Napa resident and former farmworker. He had a criminal history in the county and had several aliases that had to be investigated before the Sheriff’s Office could release his name, Undersheriff Jon Crawford said.
Now it’s time for some speculation. This is Napa. The area is notorious for using illegal immigrants for labor. In the video Morales seems to only speak Spanish and is a former farmworker. Could it possibly, maybe, might be that this prick was also an illegal immigrant? My Magic 8 Ball says all signs point to yes, in which case that would make this kill all the more satisfying. Unfortunately I was unable to find any information on that subject.
***UPDATE: It’s no longer speculation. Morales was a previously deported illegal. Fox News reports
“The illegal immigrant killed Sunday in a shootout with a California cop had been deported three times and arrested and released over ICE’s objection on several occasions — including cases involving the very department whose officer took him down in a dramatic exchange caught on her body cam.”
A PowerPoint presentation showed five of Hernandez Morales’ Napa County jail mugshots taken between 2010 and 2016. He had been arrested for crimes such as having a concealed, loaded weapon, driving under the influence and assaulting a peace officer.
The Sheriff’s Office said it takes loss of life seriously, but Crawford said the department was proud of the composure and poise Jarecki showed while fighting for her life. She is doing as well as can be expected under the circumstances and could be gone anywhere from two to four weeks on paid administrative leave, Crawford said.
Hernandez Morales’ motive is unknown, but Crawford said he had a few arrest warrants.
My guess is he was just a miserable little illegal immigrant jerk off.
Hernandez Morales shot at the deputy with a .22 caliber revolver that was reported stolen in Fremont, Crawford said. It was later discovered that he had a loaded, .22 caliber rifle in the back of the car.
Jarecki had spoken with Hernandez Morales for a few minutes before the clip began, Crawford said. It appears that he fired more than one shot at her, he said.
“I’m gonna call it divine intervention” that the bullets missed, Crawford said.
It’s clear that Hernandez Morales sought to kill her because he shot at her at point blank range, Crawford said.
Sheriff John Robertson said that Jarecki fired at least 15, but possibly 16 shots into the suspect’s vehicle.
He commended Jarecki’s actions and said that with her 2 ½ years of experience as a peace officer, she followed her training.
“That was a pretty violent, shocking thing,” he said. “Nobody wants to use lethal force, nobody even wants to use their gun … but she did what she was trained to do to eliminate the threat.”
Jarecki is a Napa native and third-generation Napa County law enforcement officer – her father is a Napa police sergeant and grandfather, Robert, is a retired Napa police captain.
She previously served as a Calistoga Police Department officer.
Jarecki was patrolling her assigned beat area – a rural area that’s mostly vineyards, and some wineries and homes – on Sunday night. Her attention was drawn to a red Honda parked facing the wrong direction on Henry Road.
“It really can’t get any more clear than this,” he said. “It’s graphic, it’s brutal, it’s sudden. Realistically its just a great reminder that we need to stay vigilant.”
Robertson said his department uploaded the video online to show the public how quickly such encounters turn violent and because some people may be skeptical of the department’s account of how things played out.
There’s definitely nothing to be skeptical about in this one. Clean shoot. And outstanding display of how to keep calm under fire. Bravo, deputy!
