Police shoot and kill pensioner with dementia carrying a crucifix – because they thought it was a GUN
Officers shoot retiree SEVEN times just seconds after arriving on the scene
POLICE have shot and killed a pensioner carrying a crucifix after mistaking it for a gun.
The dementia-sufferer was fatally wounded when cops opened fire just seconds after arriving on the scene.
Officers from Bakersfield Police Department — rated the deadliest in the US — were responding to reports a gunman was on the loose.
They shot 73-year-old Francisco Serna SEVEN times just moments after they scrambled to his neighbour’s driveway in the city 110 miles north of Los Angeles.
His distraught family claim the killing in the early hours of Monday amounts to murder.
“It is difficult to accept that our dad’s life ended so brutally, abruptly and with such excessive violence,” the family said in a statement read during a candlelight vigil at their home on Tuesday night.
“We feel our dad was stolen from us at a time when our family should be celebrating the holidays, birthdays and making happy family memories.”
The father-of-five was walking in a distressed state towards a police officer who shot him to death at 12:45am on Monday, officials said.
Bakersfield Police Chief Lyle Martin said Officer Reagan Selman fired his barrage of bullets at the reitree when he was only 15-20ft away.
They recovered no weapon, and instead only found a “dark coloured simulated woodgrain crucifix”, Bakersfield PD said.
Neighbours reported Mr Serna was accosting them and banging on doors and windows.
A woman believed he had a gun and called the police.
She then pointed the grandfather when officers arrived, and Officer Selman opened fire after between only 20-30 seconds, Chief Martin said.
A 2015 survey found that killings by Bakersfield PD are four times higher than the national average.
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