Cop’s Stab Wound May Have Been Self-Inflicted

Within just a few short days of a Seaside police officer’s report that he had been stabbed outside his Pacific Grove home shortly after 2 a.m. July 31 by a Hispanic male who fled in a silver Honda, questions began arising.  The gossip  increased after the word got out that the Monterey County District Attorney’s Office had served a search warrant at Seaside Police officer Justin Gill’s Forest Avenue home.

According to the report released by the District Attorney’s office, there was an extensive “statement of probable cause” submitted to the court Aug. 3 by DA investigator John Coletti and made public this week that shows that officers investigating the alleged stabbing had immediate suspicions regarding Gill’s story. Monterey County Superior Court Judge Pamela Butler agreed and authorized the search warrant Aug. 7.

Colletti said that Gill, 29, told conflicting stories about the stabbing and was evasive about possible enemies who might want to harm him — including former girlfriends or their angry spouses. They further said Gill was uncooperative with P.G. police during their investigation. Blood droppings found throughout Gill’s home also proved to show some inconsistencies.

“Being that Gill has been evasive and reluctant to fully cooperate with law enforcement, I believe there are at least three possible scenarios that could have occurred that night: 1) Gill was stabbed as he reported; 2) Gill was stabbed by someone he knows and does not want to say what happened because it might damage his career; 3) Gill injured himself,” Coletti wrote.

When he arrived to investigate the stabbing, which involved a single wound above Gill’s left nipple, PGPD Sgt. Jeff Fenton met him walking out of the front door of hishome dressed in pajama bottoms and wearing a head-mounted flashlight. His chest was bandaged, and he wore a holstered Glock handgun and his SPD badge on his hip. Fenton took the gun, which had blood on it, for safekeeping, and later, as Gill was walking to the ambulance gurney, he also gave Fenton a .357 revolver he’d been carrying in his front pocket “the whole time.” Gill reportedly told Fenton he’d heard knocking on the back door of his house shortly after 2 a.m., answered it and was stabbed by the unknown Hispanic male.

According to the report, he later told PGPD officer Terry Baggett he heard noises “that did not sound right,” grabbed his gun, went to investigate and was immediately stabbed when he opened the door.

Then, according to police officer Jeff Hass, he said he heard noises like doors being slammed, went to the back door to investigate, and opened it to see the suspect at the bottom of the porch steps. He said the man reached up with a single thrust and stabbed him in the chest. All three officers reported Gill was very calm, which is unusual for someone that has been violently attacked. Haas said he thought he smelled alcohol on Gill, too. Further, Coletti wondered why Gill — a member of Seaside’s SWAT team and trained as a sniper — did not react differently to the attack. “I know that SWAT officers are professionally trained in police tactics and know how to apply their training when confronting possible threats,” he wrote. “It is difficult to understand why Gill did not apply any of his training when he exited his house to investigate the noise.”

According to the report, Coletti also questioned his account of where the assailant was standing. “If the attacker were down a few steps or at the base of the five stairs leading to the porch, the investigator surmised it would be “difficult” to “impossible” to believe that a man described as being 5 foot 8 could have stabbed the 6- foot-1-inch-tall Gill in the upper chest.”

In the warrant, Coletti described the physical evidence observed and collected by DOJ senior criminalist Scott Armstrong, including a “knife with blood on it in a desk drawer, and blood stains in a bathroom, kitchen, foyer, dining room, bedroom and on the carpet inside the front and back doors — but not on the back porch, steps or sidewalk. Most of the blood, including many droplets that had fallen straight from Gill onto the floor, was found in the bathroom, some mixed with water. Three bloody footprints led from the bathroom, but none led to it.”

“Gill said he has enemies but does not know anyone who would go so far as to stab him,” said the report. “Gill said he does not have a good reputation with women and admitted sleeping with other police officer wives and has had affairs with married women,” he wrote.“During the course of the year, Gill said he might date 30 to 40 women.”

He reportedly told the investigator, “I don’t know if we need to delve deeper into the enemy question, but there’s people out there who aren’t happy with me.” Coletti said Gill “was evasive, vague and provided conflicting information” when it came to answering questions about his threat vulnerability and enemies who might do him physical harm.

As a result of the interviews, investigations and evidence, Coletti argued that the judge should allow investigators to also seize Gill’s computer and other electronic devices, since they could include copies of any email or other contact with possible suspects, files and correspondence, email account records, his cell phone and call records, and a saliva sample for DNA testing to determine if the blood found on the knife in the drawer was his. This week, assistant district attorney Terry Spitz had no comment on the case and would not say whether the warrant yielded the evidence investigators sought. “We really don’t have a statement,” he said. “I cannot comment on the investigation at all — it’s still under way, still wide open and we don’t have a particular suspect in mind.”

Read More:
Oakland Tribune: Seaside Police Officer’s Stabbing Questioned

San Jose Mercury News: Seaside Police Officer’s Stabbing Questioned