The Sun
Sunnyvale's Newspaper

Police shoot and kill man wielding a pellet gun on Murphy Ave.

By Justin Berton and Steve Enders

When bartender Chad Beaulieu dialed the 911 dispatcher a few minutes after 9 p.m. Saturday night from Murphy's Law bar, he didn't know the words he was about to speak would, minutes later, prove to be prophetic.

"[The gun] may or may not be real," Beaulieu told the dispatcher, referring to a pellet gun belonging to bar patron Eligio Dator, "but he's going to get hurt or killed waving that thing around."

Nearly 15 minutes later, Dator was shot and killed by Sunnyvale Public Safety officer Mark Gay after leading police on a foot chase through a crowded bar and onto Murphy Avenue.

Gay and officer Dave Verbrugge, who also fired two rounds at Dator, are both 12-year veterans with the department and are on administrative leave.

Beaulieu was working when Dator, a 29-year-old Sunnyvale resident, came in through the back door, pulled up a stool, ordered a Budweiser and placed his gun on the bar.

"[The other bartender] picked up the gun and the guy (Dator) snatched it out of his hand," Beaulieu said.

"It was like it was his wallet or something. It didn't even bug him, he wasn't threatening," he said.

Judging by the way Dator picked up the gun and held it, and by the sound it made when Dator put it on the bar, Beaulieu assumed the gun was not real.

"It wasn't heavy enough to be real, even though it was a replica," Beaulieu said.

Dator left Murphy's Law after bartenders kicked him out because of the gun, and then Beaulieu called 911.

Dator, according to Captain Steve Pigott, was then seen by witnesses behind Fibbar Magee's firing the pellet gun at Verbrugge. Beaulieu told the dispatcher that, though the gun appeared to be a fake, it "looked like a .45"

Pigott said a preliminary report of the autopsy from the county corner's office revealed five rounds struck Dator from the neck to the waist, and possibly a sixth.

All shots, Pigott said, hit Dator as he was running away while pointing a gun over his shoulder toward officers.

"Several rounds went into the back of the shoulder and several rounds went into his side," Pigott said.

According to police, this is what happened:

Verbrugge was the first officer to see Dator after the Beaulieu phone call. Verbrugge spotted Dator behind Fibbar Magee's bar in the parking lot.

Dator pointed his gun at Verbrugge and fired. Verbrugge returned two rounds which missed.

Dator ran through Fibbar Magee's with Verbrugge chasing close behind.

Once outside, Dator pointed his gun directly at officer Gay and began running toward the Town Center down Murphy Avenue with his gun over his shoulder pointed at the officer. Again, witnesses claimed to see and hear the pellet gun being fired.

Eight other officers were in the area, but only Gay fired, using eight shots out of a possible 12 rounds from his department-issued Smith&Wesson 40 caliber semi-automatic.

Pigott said the number of bullets fired keeps in line with department policy.

"We are taught to shoot until the person drops and is no longer a threat," Pigott said.

Pigott said the last time Sunnyvale police used fatal force on a suspect was in 1995 when two officers entered an apartment complex and were attacked by a knife-wielding suspect.

Pigott said the officers were cleared by a grand jury because there wasn't enough evidence to send the case to trial.

Before Murphy Avenue was converted into the hopping downtown strip that it now is, it once held a reputation as being a rough part of town. Pigott recalled a homicide took place on the street 15-20 years ago.

The current investigation is nearing a close, Pigott said.

Police investigators have interviewed 25-30 witnesses at the scene and are in the process of testing the guns fired.

After the investigation is completed by the department, it will be sent to the district attorney's office for further review.

Bob Sadri, the owner of Gumba's restaurant, located a few shops down from where Dator lay dead on Saturday night, said the crowd of about 100 people were stunned.

"People were shocked. You don't see this kind of thing in Sunnyvale," he said. "It can happen anywhere. People say that people will stay away from Murphy Street, but I doubt it."

"This is a good community," Sadri added.

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This article appeared in the Sunnyvale Sun, May 13, 1998.
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