Police release video of officer shooting murder suspect in Santa Cruz County

WATSONVILLE – Watsonville police released video footage Friday showing one of their officers shooting and wounding a man accused of murdering a 25-year-old woman.

The posting on the agency's social media page came as attorneys for defendant Joshua Gonzalez-Martinez, 25, of Watsonville, are attempting to set bail for their client while he awaits arraignment.

The compiled video footage, along with closed captions and a voiceover, reveals new information about the Aug. 3 encounter, including a 911 audio recording of Gonzalez-Martinez speaking to a dispatcher he called outside the Watsonville Police Department after 9 p.m.

“I have a child here, she is with me. I am in the parking lot of the police station. She is in danger. I have a knife,” a voice belonging to Gonzalez-Martinez was heard saying, according to authorities.

A young child's voice could be heard in the background as the dispatcher confirmed what Gonzalez-Martinez had said, asking why the child was in danger and if the man was trying to hurt her. Gonzalez-Martinez confirmed his intentions and said the three-year-old girl, his stepdaughter, was in the vehicle while he stood nearby.

As Gonzalez-Martinez and the dispatcher continued to talk, an officer drove into the parking lot and stopped behind the vehicle.

Footage from police surveillance cameras and the shooting officer's body camera appears to show a man sprinting directly toward an officer identified in court documents as Robert Strong immediately after the officer orders the man to drop his knife. The officer stumbles backward as the man charges. The apparent attacker slides to the ground after being shot.

According to officials and a court document, police later found the three-year-old girl unsecured and unharmed in the back seat of a parked car.

About 12 hours after the incident, a hiker found the body of Lizbeth Arceo Sedano, a Watsonville woman and Gonzalez-Martinez's sometime companion, who had been stabbed 12 times on a wooded trail near Corralitos, court records show. An empty stroller was found nearby. The Santa Cruz County Sheriff's Office is investigating Arceo-Sedano's death, but charges of murder, attempted murder of a police officer, assault with a deadly weapon on a police officer, endangering a child and obstructing a police officer have been consolidated into a single charge.

Earlier this month, Santa Cruz County Assistant District Attorney Michael Mahan objected to the bail setting for Gonzalez-Martinez, who remained held without bail in the Santa Cruz County Jail on Friday.