A San Jose police officer and a suspect were both seriously injured in a shooting near Lick Avenue and Goodyear Street yesterday evening, touching off a major law enforcement response just steps from Tamien Park. Emergency crews converged on the neighborhood after the shooting, and officials asked everyone to avoid the area while the investigation continued at the active scene.
A SWAT team and Santa Clara County Sheriff's deputies were assisting San Jose police as the situation unfolded, according to a source who spoke to ABC7 Bay Area. Mayor Matt Mahan was on his way to the hospital, his team told the outlet, continuing a pattern local officials have followed after previous line-of-duty shootings involving San Jose officers.
The exact circumstances of how the officer and the suspect were wounded have not been detailed publicly, and the station's report did not specify what led up to the gunfire. Police presence remained centered near Lick Avenue and Goodyear Street, an area that sits at the intersection of dense transit-oriented housing, the Tamien Caltrain and VTA light rail hub, and Tamien Park itself — a 3.5-acre neighborhood park with sports courts and play areas that finished its final construction phase in 2021.
A Familiar Multi-Agency Response
San Jose protocol requires that any officer-involved shooting resulting in death or serious injury trigger dual criminal investigations, one from the San Jose Police Department's Homicide Unit and another from the Santa Clara County District Attorney's Office, according to the City of San Jose's Office of the Independent Police Auditor. Internal Affairs and the auditor's office also conduct separate administrative reviews assessing department policy and officer conduct independent of any criminal findings.
Those layered reviews reflect a policy shift Police Chief Paul Joseph made in July 2025, when he reinstated a rule requiring SJPD Internal Affairs to respond immediately to officer-involved shooting scenes and coordinate with civilian oversight, reversing a brief departmental effort to delay that access. Oversight officials at the time stressed that immediate scene access is essential for maintaining public trust.
Case Arrives Amid Leadership Turnover at Watchdog Office
The shooting comes as San Jose's Office of the Independent Police Auditor is navigating its own leadership transition. The office appointed Deputy Auditor Dwight White as interim auditor this month while it launches a national search for a permanent replacement, per San José Spotlight. That office is responsible for overseeing internal investigations into officer misconduct, use of force, and citizen complaints across the department.
This is not the first time in 2026 that an SJPD officer has been seriously hurt in a shooting. In January, the department's first officer-involved shooting of the year left a sergeant with a fractured skull after a suspect opened fire during a pursuit; the sergeant survived and was released from the hospital days later, and the suspect was killed by return fire.
Recent Cases Show How Reviews Typically Resolve
Past cases suggest how this one may eventually be resolved, though any conclusions remain months away. In July, the Santa Clara County District Attorney's Office formally cleared two SJPD officers of criminal wrongdoing in a fatal 2025 shooting at Cataldi Park, finding that their use of lethal force was legally justified. Just last week, prosecutors similarly determined that two Santa Clara County Sheriff's deputies acted lawfully in an October 2025 San Jose incident after an armed suspect charged at them.
Under state law, specifically Assembly Bill 1506, the California Department of Justice independently investigates officer-involved shootings only when an officer kills an unarmed civilian, leaving most local police shooting reviews, including standard serious-injury cases, in the hands of the county district attorney and city oversight bodies. San Jose's police department has operated with roughly 1,060 to 1,070 sworn officers covering 180 square miles and more than a million residents, a staffing level that has remained below authorized totals for years.
No further details on the condition of the officer or the suspect, the identity of either person, or the sequence of events leading to the shooting have been released. The investigation remained active near Lick Avenue and Goodyear Street, with officials continuing to ask residents to steer clear of the area.
