By Caleb Lunetta
The San Diego Union-Tribune
OCEANSIDE, Calif. — Body-worn camera footage released Monday shows an Oceanside police officer and Riverside County sheriff’s deputy exchanging gunfire earlier this year with a man wanted on suspicion of killing his girlfriend.
The footage captures a shootout between Dorian Deshawn Marquiseh Larkin, 28, and Officer Malcom Cisneros and Deputy Richard Schweitzer on June 23 in a shopping center parking lot at Vandegrift Avenue and North Redondo Road in Oceanside, police said.
The incident ended when Larkin ran through the parking lot and to a nearby intersection, where he fatally shot himself in the head, police said.
The edited video released to the public contains explanatory captions from the Oceanside Police Department and images from crime scene photographers, business surveillance video and body-camera video.
The Police Department’s video begins with Chief Sean Marchand saying the shooting stemmed from multiple 911 callers reporting a domestic dispute shortly before midnight June 22 at an apartment in north Oceanside. Witnesses also reported hearing multiple gunshots.
When officers arrived on the scene, they found Kimberly Foster, 34, fatally shot multiple times inside the apartment, police said. Foster’s four children — ages 5 to 17 — were inside the residence at the time of the shooting.
In the video, Marchand says witnesses told officers that Foster’s boyfriend, later identified as Larkin, had been seen leaving the apartment with a gun in his hand. His name and car’s description were then broadcast to neighboring law enforcement agencies.
Around 2:40 a.m., a Riverside deputy spots a vehicle driving erratically that matched the description of Larkin’s car near Winchester Road and Jefferson Avenue in Temecula, according to the chief’s narration.
The deputy attempts to pull the car over, but the driver does not stop, the chief says. A pursuit begins, heading southbound on Interstate 15 out of Riverside County and back into Oceanside, Marchand says.
The department’s video then plays a recording of a phone call Larkin had with a family member while he was being chased by law enforcement officers.
“I might shoot it out at my brother’s spot,” Larkin says in the recording. “I’d rather die, bro. I have to.”
After driving over a spike strip around 3 a.m., the video shows Larkin pulling his car into the Oceanside shopping center. He jumps out of the car while it is still moving in the parking lot.
Larkin opens fire, striking one of the patrol vehicles, police say.
The video then cuts to footage recorded on Cisneros’ and Schweitzer’s body-worn cameras as they pull up behind Larkin’s car in the parking lot. Gunfire can be heard as the officer and deputy exit their respective police vehicles.
Both Cisneros and Schweitzer quickly take cover behind their driver-side doors and fire their handguns multiple times, their body-worn camera footage shows.
Larkin is struck by gunfire in the hip and thigh before running away from the law enforcement officers, police say in the video.
The video then plays security camera footage from the surrounding businesses, showing Larkin running out of the parking lot to Sol Drive, a residential street behind the shopping center.
The suspect is seen carrying a Glock 22 .40 caliber handgun, according to police.
The police chief says in the video that Larkin reached a nearby intersection, then turned his gun on himself and fired.
The San Diego Police Department will handle the investigation of the shootout under a countywide protocol meant to ensure that no department investigates its own shootings.
Additionally, the Oceanside Police Department and the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department will each conduct an internal administrative investigation. The San Diego County District Attorney’s Office will determine whether the involved officer or deputy bear any criminal liability.
Ciscneros has been with the Oceanside department for about nine years and works as a police K-9 handler, according to police. Schweitzer has been with the Riverside agency for about two years and is currently on patrol.
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