LOS ANGELES (AP) — A teenage girl who was taken by her father was following a sheriff’s deputy’s orders and looked like she was surrendering when other deputies shot and killed her during a gun fight on a Southern California highway. There is a recently released video and audio that show the incident.Savannah Graziano, 15, was shot and killed while running toward San Bernardino County sheriff’s deputies amidst gunfire on Sept. 27, 2022. Her father, 45-year-old Anthony Graziano, was also fatally shot.
The San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department released the video and audio clips, including a heavily produced and narrated 15-minute video, on Friday in response to requests from The Associated Press and other media organizations. There were no body-worn cameras on the deputies, but video was recorded by a sheriff’s helicopter and witness dashboard cameras.
Before the shooting, deputies chased Graziano’s pickup truck for about 70 miles (110 kilometers), including along Highway 15. A helicopter crew following the chase reported shots fired from the driver’s side. Other shots were fired from the passenger’s side, according to a deputy and a passing motorist. It is not clear who was shooting from the pickup truck.
The pickup truck and deputies’ vehicles came to a stop on the desert interstate east of Los Angeles in Hesperia, about 35 miles (55 kilometers) north of Fontana, where Graziano had shot and killed her mother the day before.
The video shows that Savannah Graziano was very close to safety when she was killed.
A deputy, using a sheriff’s SUV as cover, repeatedly tells her, “Passenger, get out!” and “Come to me, come to me!”
Wearing tactical gear and a helmet, the teenager gets out of the pickup truck from the passenger side and runs toward the deputy, briefly crouching to the ground as he continues to command her.
But as she stands up from her crouch and starts moving toward the deputy, others from a higher position start shooting. The deputy shouts: “Stop! Stop shooting her! He’s in the car! Stop!”
The deputy’s shouts were not broadcast over the radio, the sheriff’s department said, but the audio was captured by his belt recorder.
A deputy in the helicopter can be heard saying “Oh, no” over the radio after the teen was shot.
For months, officials did not say whether it was her father or the deputies who killed Savannah Graziano.
In the new video, the narrator says the Grazianos “were hit by deputy rounds and died of their injuries.” The agency has not released autopsy reports for the teenager, her father or her mother, Tracy Martinez, and it has not named the deputies involved. A spokesperson for the agency did respond to a request for comment Tuesday. The department said four sheriff’s department vehicles were hit by gunfire during the pursuit, and deputies took multiple firearms and hundreds of rounds from the pickup truck, as well as flash bangs, smoke grenades, body armor and tactical helmets.
Savannah Graziano was shot without a weapon.
The state Department of Justice, which is looking into the shooting, referred media questions to their 2022 news release and declined to say more. State law requires the department to review any officer-involved shooting that results in the death of an unarmed civilian.
Savannah Graziano saw her mother being killed
from the backseat of her father’s truck but did not try to help her, authorities said. Her father got out with a handgun and shot at Martinez near a school during morning drop-off, causing students and parents to seek cover. Anthony Graziano also shot at a father and child near the school.
Anthony Graziano had left the family’s home a month or two before the killing as the couple went through a divorce, according to Fontana police. Savannah Graziano went with her father, while her younger brother stayed with their mother. Anthony Graziano and his daughter had been staying in his pickup truck and hotels for weeks before the violence, police said at the time. There were no reports of domestic violence or child abuse.
Officials issued an
Amber Alert for Savannah Graziano
after the shooting in Fontana, though authorities later questioned whether she went with her father willingly. Friday’s video did not address that, only mentioning that an Amber Alert had been sent out. LOS ANGELES (AP) — A teenage girl who had been abducted by her father was following a sheriff’s deputy’s instructions and appeared to be surrendering when other deputies fatally shot her during a gun battle on a Southern California highway, according to recently released video and audio. Savannah Graziano, 15, was shot and killed as she… following the shooting in Fontana, though authorities later questioned whether she went with her father willingly. Friday’s video did not address that, only mentioning that an Amber Alert had been sent out.
