A 19-year-old man shot and killed by an off-duty police officer last month allegedly had been involved in an altercation outside a small market in Orcutt and fired a gun, injuring two people.

The Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office provided more details about the circumstances surrounding the shooting that killed Jose Manuel Reyes Rios, 19. 

Neither the Sheriff’s Office nor Santa Maria Police Department has released the name of the SMPD officer who reportedly has been placed on administrative leave, which is standard procedure after a shooting.

On Friday, the Sheriff’s Office also released a short video clip from the Melody Mini Market security cameras that investigators contend shows Rios shooting a gun at unidentified others.  

“These are the seconds just before the off-duty officer intervened in the incident,” Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Raquel Zick said in a statement Friday. “This video has been shortened from its entire length to give the public a brief idea of the scene without compromising additional parts of the investigation that remains ongoing.”

The video clip can be viewed by clicking here.

Just before 8 p.m. March 25, two vehicles with four occupants each, arrived separately at Melody Mini Market on 130 E. Foster Road, according to the Sheriff’s Office.

Moments later, an off-duty officer employed by the Santa Maria Police Department arrived in his personal vehicle with his family. A woman and her two children arrived in a fourth vehicle.

While the off-duty officer and the woman were inside the store, the two groups from the other vehicles engaged in a physical altercation in the parking lot, Zick said.

“The off-duty officer had returned to his vehicle at the same time that Rios brandished a firearm and shot at the other group, striking one of them,” Zick said. “Rios paused in his shooting, running past the off-duty officer who had drawn his firearm and police badge.”

The off-duty officer reportedly verbally identified himself as an officer and ordered Rios to stop shooting and surrender, Zick said.

“Rios did not comply with the off-duty police officer’s command, raising his firearm and shooting again at the other group and towards an occupied restaurant,” Zick said.

One customer at a nearby restaurant was injured from flying debris related to Rios’ shooting.

The officer fired at Rios until he fell to the ground,

“The off-duty officer called emergency services on his cell phone, ushered the uninvolved bystanders into the market and sheltered them inside until deputies arrived,” Zick said. 

Rios was pronounced dead at the scene. 

Investigators determined that Rios possessed a so-called ghost gun or a weapon without a serial number, making it harder to trace. 

The other people who were involved in the altercation, including the person shot by Rios, fled the scene prior to deputies’ arrival, Zick said. 

It wasn’t clear if any of those people involved in the altercation had been identified, located, interviewed or arrested as of Friday.

Following an autopsy, the Coroner’s Bureau preliminarily determined that Rios died as a result of multiple gunshot wounds, Zick said. The final cause and manner of death is pending the results of toxicology tests, she added.

On Sunday morning, supporters of Rios’ family plan to march from the corner of Broadway and Stowell Road to Santa Maria City Hall, beginning at 10 a.m. 

A funeral Mass is planned for 1 p.m. on April 14 at St. John Neumann Catholic Church with burial to follow at the Santa Maria Cemetery.

A GoFundMe page to help cover the funeral costs can be found by clicking here.