OAKHURST — A Madera County Sheriff’s Office detective has been released from the hospital and is now recovering at home after being injured in a “deputy-involved shooting” Thursday afternoon in Oakhurst.
The incident, which shut down a large section of downtown Oakhurst, occurred just after 10 a.m. Thursday morning near the intersection of Highway 41 and Road 426.
MCSO Undersheriff Tyson Pogue said a Madera County Sheriff’s Office detective based out of the Oakhurst substation responded to a call of a man “acting erratically.” Witnesses report the man was throwing things onto the highway and walking in and out of traffic near the intersection of Highway 41 and Road 426.
After the detective arrived on the scene, he and the suspect reportedly became involved in a physical altercation near a bus stop along Highway 41. During the struggle, the detective shot the man.
The MCSO detective, who has not been identified, also suffered “serious” injuries in the incident, according to the undersheriff, and was transported by ambulance to a local hospital.
The suspect has been identified as a 32-year-old Mariposa man with “an extensive criminal history,” according to Undersheriff Pogue. “He has at least one arrest in each county for obstructing or delaying a peace officer.”
That suspect was transported to a hospital in Fresno via air ambulance. His condition is described as “non-life threaatening.”
The Madera Police Department in conjunction with the California Highway Patrol is conducting the investigation into the shooting.
“We wanted to thank the community for all of their prayers and well wishes,” said a message posted late Thursday evening by MCSO.
