A Sacramento man was sentenced to 30 years to life in prison this week for shooting a police officer during a chaotic family dispute that spilled into a South Sacramento street in March 2021, leaving the officer wounded in the stomach and setting off a multi-hour standoff. Joshua Jermaine Hippard, now 37, was sentenced on September 4 by Sacramento Superior Court Judge Steve White, five months after a jury convicted him of attempted murder and related firearm charges.
According to the Sacramento Bee, the shooting began after Hippard argued with his wife, then fired his gun at his wife, their six children and his brother-in-law as the family tried to flee in separate vehicles. His wife had put the six children in one car and asked her brother-in-law to drive her other car and follow behind, the paper reports. Two of Hippard’s bullets landed in the backseat of the vehicle driven by his brother-in-law, who was not hurt, while his wife and children also escaped injury.
A Sacramento police officer responding to reports of gunfire spotted Hippard walking on the sidewalk in the 5900 block of Tangerine Avenue, in the city’s Parkway neighborhood, and saw him put a gun in his pocket, per the same account. The officer told Hippard not to move, but Hippard instead approached the passenger side of the patrol vehicle and pointed his gun at the officer before firing about five times, including twice into the patrol car itself.
Officer Shot, Suspect Wounded in Return Fire
One of Hippard’s shots struck the officer in the stomach, though the Sacramento Bee reports the officer’s bulletproof vest and flashlight protected him from more serious injuries. As the wounded officer exited his moving patrol vehicle to return fire, the unmanned vehicle kept rolling until it struck parked cars along Tangerine Avenue, according to footage examined by ABC10.
Police gunfire struck Hippard, who fell to the ground but reloaded his gun while lying there, refusing to drop the firearm even as a second officer arrived and ordered him to put it down or throw it away, the Sacramento Bee reports. Police negotiated with Hippard for several hours before he eventually dropped the handgun and was taken into custody. During the standoff, Sacramento Police SWAT officers used a specialized remote-controlled robot to physically pull the loaded handgun out of Hippard’s reach as he lay wounded on the street, according to CBS13.
Both the wounded officer and Hippard were hospitalized and treated for their injuries. The initial 911 caller had reported hearing about five gunshots near Tangerine Avenue shortly before midnight but could not give dispatchers a suspect description before officers arrived, according to ABC10.
Nine Days of Footage Released Under State Transparency Law
Nine days after the shooting, on April 2, 2021, the Sacramento Police Department publicly released nine video and audio files tied to the case, including two body-worn camera recordings, surveillance footage, drone video and six dispatch recordings. The release was mandated under California Senate Bill 1421, enacted in 2019, which requires public disclosure of law enforcement records involving peace officer firearm discharges and serious use-of-force incidents.
The investigation into the shooting was independently monitored by both the City of Sacramento Office of Public Safety Accountability and the Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office, reflecting the layered oversight built into officer-involved shooting cases in the city. Sacramento Police Department data later presented to the Sacramento City Council showed that shooting reports in the city rose 25% and total shooting victims climbed 17% between 2020 and 2021, the year of Hippard’s attack.
Conviction and Sentencing Five Months Apart
A Sacramento County jury found Hippard guilty on March 20, 2026, of attempted murder, assault on a police officer with a semi-automatic firearm, assault with a semi-automatic firearm and discharging a firearm at an inhabited vehicle. He was sentenced five months later, on September 4, by Judge White to 30 years to life in prison.
The case, numbered 21FE005634, was prosecuted by Deputy District Attorney Emilee Divinagracia of the Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office Major Crimes Unit, according to the Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office. Hippard, who was 32 at the time of the 2021 shooting, remained in custody at the Rio Cosumnes Correctional Center near Elk Grove while awaiting transfer to a state prison, per the Sacramento Bee.
