SUNNYVALE (Tribune News Service) —The man shot and killed by police after allegedly wielding a knife during a liquor-store robbery last week was an Army veteran reportedly dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder, authorities said.
But the suspect Joseph Jeremy Weber, 28, is not to be confused with missing Joseph George Weber IV -- also 28, also a 2004 alum of Fremont High School, and also an Army vet reportedly battling PTSD -- who disappeared last fall.
Both Joseph Webers knew of the other while attending Fremont, but otherwise had no significant overlap besides the occasional confusing of the two.
It was strong enough that when Weber the suspect was seen at the VA Palo Alto Health Care System about three weeks ago, Sunnyvale police contacted the family of Weber the missing person -- who also visited the same VA hospital -- to let them know it wasn't their son. They made a similar call Wednesday after the fatal afternoon shooting in an alleyway off Tasman Drive.
That's where police say the suspect moved toward Officer Benjamin Kroutil while holding a knife, prompting the 13-year police veteran to open fire, striking and wounding him. Joseph Jeremy Weber later died at the hospital.
The confrontation was preceded by a 911 call around 11 a.m. reporting a robbery where he allegedly took a pack of cigarettes a knifepoint from a clerk at Grewalz Liquor & Groceries at 1125 Tasman Drive. Kroutil was the first officer on scene, and confronted the suspect in the alley.
Police radio recordings recount the officer reporting to dispatchers that the suspect was about 50 feet away from him and refusing to drop the knife. Moments later, the officers reported shots were fired and the suspect was down.
Both the Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety and Kroutil's attorney contend the suspect closed the distance during the gap in transmissions.
"Even when (the suspect) was advancing, Officer Kroutil was still giving commands," attorney Zachery Lopes said. "The suspect was within range to inflict death or great bodily injury. There's no question."
Sunnyvale Capt. Jeffrey Hunter said investigators collected several cellphone videos recorded by witnesses, including at least one that reportedly captured the entire encounter, which Hunter said corroborates the police version of events. The department says the video has been shared with prosecutors, but that there are no plans for public release.
Kroutil was placed on paid administrative leave, which is routine in all officer-involved shootings.
In the wake of the shooting, court records surfaced of a 2012 federal civil suit that named Kroutil as one of several defendants in a 2011 encounter in Modesto when Kroutil was an officer in that city. According to the lawsuit, a Modesto woman alleged her civil rights were violated by the officers when they tried to enforce a car repossession with what she claimed were heavy-handed tactics like drawing their weapons and threatening her family and pets. The suit was dismissed after the city reached a $120,000 settlement with the plaintiff.
Lopes said the suit amounts to an assembly of claims that were never proven in court.
"That lawsuit is simply allegations," he said. "I don't think that any bearing on Ben's actions."
Joseph George Weber III, the father of the missing veteran, took to his family's social-media and web pages to tell supporters that his son was not the one killed by police and is still not accounted for.
The elder Weber said his family has come to grips with the likelihood that his son, is dead since there has been no sighting or trace of him detected since disappeared Nov. 24. Joseph George Weber IV was a military police officer in the Army, serving two tours in Iraq starting in 2007. Family members believe he had PTSD, one of the signature ailments for service members in the post-9/11 era, and may have been suicidal.
He was last seen, on surveillance video, walking in the area of the Golden Gate Bridge. His family said he was having marital struggles and had been suffering headaches for which he sought treatment at a VA facility on the Peninsula. PTSD often exhibits itself following physical harm or after seeing others endure harm. Veterans exposed to combat are at high risk and symptoms often are linked to traumatic brain injury. It can be accompanied by depression, other anxiety disorders and substance abuse.
His family keeps vigil on him, on the outer edge of hope, even as all avenues to find him appear exhausted.
"We're a family suffering from an ambiguous loss," the father said.
Much less is known about Joseph Jeremy Weber, who a VA official said visited the same facilities as his like-named high-school classmate, and what led him to the fateful encounter last week that ended with his death. Attempts to reach friends and relatives were unsuccessful Monday.
Staff writer Mark Emmons contributed to this report.
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