San Jose officer shot, armed suspect killed after entering family’s home
A San Jose, California, police sergeant was shot and an armed robbery suspect was killed after the suspect entered an unrelated family’s home while fleeing officers in a stolen SUV, according to authorities. The sergeant, Matt Walsh, is in stable condition.
Police Chief Paul Joseph said Wednesday that the shooting happened at about 5:55 p.m. Tuesday at a home in the 400 block of Goodyear Street, after officers tracked the suspect from a nearby crash scene.
The confrontation followed a series of crimes beginning Aug. 16, when a 2003 gold Chevrolet Tahoe was reported stolen from the 3000 block of Copperfield Avenue in San Jose. The suspect repeatedly changed the SUV’s license plates with stolen plates to avoid detection, Joseph said.
Police said the suspect used the Tahoe in two armed robberies. In the first, at about 2:20 p.m. Saturday, he approached a person using an ATM outside a bank in the 500 block of West Capitol Avenue, armed with a brown long gun, and stole money and a wallet.
A second robbery happened at about 12:54 p.m. Sunday at a shopping center in the 100 block of Curtner Avenue. The suspect approached another person in a parking lot, demanded their belongings and fled in the stolen Tahoe.
Robbery detectives located the SUV near San Jose Avenue and Almaden Road at about 12:31 p.m. Tuesday. They later identified the driver as Anthony Chavez, 25, of Campbell, who had a felony warrant and matched the description of the robbery suspect.
Chavez had an extensive criminal history and surveillance video showed him carrying a long gun during the robberies. The department’s Special Operations MERGE Unit, a version of a SWAT team, took over the surveillance.
At about 5:43 p.m., officers tried to block the SUV near San Jose Avenue and Pomona Avenue, but the suspect escaped and led them through city streets. During the pursuit, he displayed a silver handgun at officers and struck multiple uninvolved vehicles.
The suspect crashed the Tahoe into parked vehicles near Goodyear Street and Lick Avenue at about 5:48 p.m. A police helicopter saw him retrieve items from the backseat before fleeing on foot into a nearby neighborhood.
Police said he entered the backyard of one home, jumped a fence and approached the rear door of another residence. Officers believed he had entered the house and forced their way inside, finding a family that was unaware the armed suspect had come into their home.
The officers evacuated the family and searched the home. After deploying a flashbang, they entered a small bathroom where the suspect was hiding, police said.
As officers entered the bathroom, the suspect opened fire and struck Walsh twice. Walsh and another officer returned fire, striking the suspect multiple times.
Walsh, a 19-year veteran and supervisor of the MERGE Unit, walked out of the home under his own power before being taken to a hospital. The suspect was pronounced dead at the scene, and police recovered a silver revolver.
The suspect had committed at least four armed robberies in 2011 and was sentenced to 23 years in prison in 2016 before being resentenced and paroled early in October 2025. He was later released by a judge despite the district attorney’s objection after being accused of new crimes while on parole.
“He should have been in custody, but instead he was out committing the robberies I mentioned, and he shot Sergeant Walsh,” Chief Joseph said.
Dramatic Ring camera video showed the moments leading up to the fatal shooting of an armed robbery suspect in San Jose who ran into a home with a family inside. An officer was injured in the exchange of gunfire and a man, child and baby were safely escorted out of the home. For… pic.twitter.com/tyAfvYHXOx
— ABC7 News (@abc7newsbayarea) August 26, 2026
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Ella Rae Greene, Editor In Chief
