A 65-year-old physician showed up at La Quinta City Hall armed with an assault-style rifle and then called 911 to report his whereabouts before being fatally shot by a responding deputy, according to Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco.
“Kill me,” the suspect is heard saying after being struck by the gunfire, according to body camera footage released by the sheriff’s department.
“No,” one of the deputies can be heard saying after the suspect repeats his request.
The footage was released late Thursday as part of a five-minute narrative — posted on the department’s social media accounts — concerning the Sept. 24 death of Randy Fedorchuk of La Quinta.
Deputies were sent about 1:25 that afternoon to La Quinta City Hall at 78495 Calle Tampico on a report of a man with a gun in the courtyard in front of the sheriff’s Civic Center Community Policing Office. Bianco said it was Fedorchuk who made the brief call.
The suspect can be seen in the footage pointing his rifle in the direction of one of two responding deputies. While approaching the suspect with guns drawn, the deputies can be heard demanding that the suspect drop the gun and raise his hands.
Two gunshots, which Bianco said were fired by one of the deputies, can be heard. It is unclear if both shots struck the suspect, who was subsequently rushed to an area hospital, where he later died. The deputies were unhurt.
A semi-automatic rifle was recovered at the scene, Bianco said.
“We take the use of force very seriously and make every effort to de-escalate these situations whenever possible,” Bianco says in the video.
In the body camera footage, Fedorchuk can be seen wearing a medical-style face mask.
The deputies, whose names were not released, were placed on administrative leave in accordance with department policy on investigations into shootings involving sheriff’s personnel. They have since returned to duty, sheriff’s Sgt. Albert Martinez said Friday.
Fedorchuk was a local doctor who had been employed by Borrego Health from April 2016 until this April.
“Dr. Fedorchuk served his patients mostly at Centro Medico Cathedral City offering primary care services, but rotated to other sites of care if/when needed,” company spokesman Vitor Coral previously told City News Service.
Coral said he was “not at liberty to discuss” the circumstances surrounding Fedorchuk’s departure from the company.
Investigators with the sheriff’s department and the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office are continuing to investigate the shooting, according to the sheriff’s department.
Fedorchuk did not have any documented felony or misdemeanor convictions in Riverside County.
The fatal shooting was the third involving a Riverside County sheriff’s deputy in the Coachella Valley since June.
Jeffery Monroy, 33, of Cathedral City was fatally wounded Aug. 7 after authorities say he attacked a deputy with a screwdriver in the 70000 block of Tamarisk Lane in Rancho Mirage.
Deputies fatally shot Aaron Solorio Granados, 33, on June 22 outside C.V. Guns & Tackle at 41-945 Boardwalk, Suite R, in Palm Desert, after he pointed a gun at them, according to the sheriff’s department.