A 43-year-old man accused of shooting a birthday celebrant on Olive Avenue earlier this week was taken into custody Thursday after he allegedly rammed an undercover detective's vehicle while trying to flee arrest in northern Fresno. Troy Franklin was located near First Avenue and Nees Avenue around 10:05 a.m. by Fresno Police Department Street Violence Bureau tactical officers, who moved to arrest him on a warrant tied to a shooting four days earlier.
According to GV Wire, the confrontation began when officers watched Franklin exit a business and get into a vehicle, at which point he intentionally rammed an undercover detective's car before speeding off. The chase escalated quickly, pulling in a wide swath of department resources as Franklin tried to put distance between himself and the officers who had tracked him to the commercial area.
Franklin eventually drove to Barstow Avenue and Millbrook Avenue, where he collided with a parked vehicle, per Fresno Police Department records shared on Facebook. The department's Air1 helicopter followed him during the pursuit, and he was ultimately taken into custody with help from the Street Violence Bureau tactical team, the Career Criminal Auto Theft Team, K-9 officers, and Northeast patrol officers. Fresno police say Franklin will face charges connected to both the August 9 shooting and felony assault on a peace officer, and he is expected to be booked into Fresno County Jail.
How the August 9 Shooting Unfolded
The case traces back to a birthday celebration that turned violent on Olive Avenue near Lucerne Avenue. The victim was celebrating his birthday with several other people when Central Policing District officers responded to a ShotSpotter alert reporting eleven rounds fired in the area, according to the Fresno Police Department's Facebook post. Investigators say the solo occupant of a black Chevrolet fired several rounds at the victim, who suffered a graze gunshot wound to his left ankle.
A subject accompanying the victim returned fire toward the suspect in what police described as self-defense of the victim, the department said. Under California's CALCRIM 3470 standard, a person is legally justified in using force to defend another if they reasonably believe that person faces imminent bodily injury, according to Chambers & Ball — the legal framework that appears to underlie police treating the companion's gunfire as lawful rather than criminal. The victim then drove to Second Street and Orleans Avenue to call police before being taken to Community Regional Medical Center in stable condition.
License Plate Readers Led Detectives to a Suspect
Felony Assault Unit detectives identified Franklin as the shooting suspect with the assistance of Automated License Plate Reader technology, according to the department's account of the investigation. Detectives then authored a Ramey warrant for his arrest — a pre-complaint warrant that, per California Penal Code Section 817, allows a judge to authorize an arrest based on an officer's sworn declaration of probable cause before the district attorney files formal charges, as explained by Eisner Gorin LLP.
Fresno Police Department expanded its license plate reader network in 2024 by contracting with Flock Safety for fixed cameras, moving beyond the mobile readers mounted in patrol cars, public radio station KVPR reported in July. The system cross-references plates in real time against law enforcement wants and warrants, which is how detectives were able to connect Franklin to the black Chevrolet described in the shooting. GV Wire has separately noted that Fresno police run thousands of plate-reader searches every month, while internal compliance audits review only a handful of those searches at a time — a gap that has fueled debate at Fresno City Hall over privacy oversight as the department's contract comes up for renewal.
A Prior Federal Case Involving a Different Chase
Court records reviewed by the U.S. Department of Justice show that a 34-year-old Fresno man named Troy Franklin was sentenced in February 2018 to seven years and eight months in federal prison for being a felon in possession of an illegal short-barreled AR-15 rifle after fleeing police in a vehicle. That earlier case involved Franklin attempting to flee a traffic stop in a black Range Rover before hiding in an apartment, according to the same federal records.
Under California Penal Code Section 245(c), assaulting a peace officer with a deadly weapon other than a firearm is a straight felony carrying a state prison sentence of three, four, or five years, per Eisner Gorin LLP — a statute that covers using a vehicle to strike a police car and applies to the ramming allegation against Franklin. It remains unclear whether the undercover officers involved in Thursday's incident sustained any injuries, what specific charges the Fresno County District Attorney's Office will ultimately file following the Ramey warrant arrest, or whether Franklin's vehicle was registered in his name or flagged directly by the Flock Safety cameras — details GV Wire flagged as still unresolved.
