Family Mourns Passing Of Lake Elsinore Man Shot By Deputy

The man who was deputy passed away Sunday night.

Arturo Fernandez, of Lake Elsinore, died Sunday sometime around 6:30 p.m. at Inland Valley Medical Center in Wildomar after being disconnected from life support.

He was 20 years old.

Fernandez had been hospitalized since early Friday morning, after being shot in the head by the deputy.

According to a police report, Fernandez was driving a truck in Lake Elsinore and was pulled over for a vehicle code violation by the deputy. The report said Fernandez yielded, but then “rammed the police car and attempted to ram the officer with his vehicle, which caused the officer to fire his duty weapon at the suspect.”

The truck, police say, was stolen.

The grueling decision to take Fernandez off life support was made by his mother, Maria Juarez-Munoz, 40, who stood stoic and strong by his bedside Sunday.

As her eldest son lay in the ICU bed -- his head wrapped in gauze bandage, his eyes slightly covered, his mouth ajar -- Juarez-Munoz said, “He wouldn’t want to be this way.

“People should know my son was loved,” she said. “He was someone’s baby. He was a human being.”

Fernandez lived at home in Lake Elsinore with his mom, two younger brothers and a sister.

“They are very close,” Juarez-Munoz said of her children. “They will miss him very much.”

She said she found out her son had been shot after he didn’t return home and she began calling area hospitals.

“When I got to the hospital, I asked the nurse, ‘Is my son going to be ok,’ and she said, ‘no, he’s not.’”

Juarez-Munoz admitted her son was not perfect, and life had been hard. His father last saw his boy when he was just 3. There had been no communication since.

Fernandez had trouble in school and was a handful, according to his mother. He was diagnosed in early childhood with Attention Deficit Disorder and was medicated for it. He was placed in special education classes, and he never graduated high school.

“He was kicked out,” Juarez-Munoz said. “He went to Tri-Valley for a while, but he didn’t like school.”

As a teen, he was hospitalized, his mother said. The doctor said he was bi-polar and schizophrenic, but it would go away, she said.

David Cuevas, 23, Juarez-Munoz’s younger brother, said he was very close to his nephew.

“We were like brothers. He looked up to me. He was the kind who you said, ‘Come on, let’s go,’ and he would follow. He was just happy.”

Cuevas said he was always warning his nephew to stay out of trouble.

“Unfortunately, he didn’t, but he was a good-hearted person. He would never hurt anybody.”

In the hours leading up to Fernandez’s passing, family members huddled together in the ICU waiting room and in the hall. Some told stories through tears.

Art was a good cook who liked baking pastries, he was a follower, he loved his family -- full of life, always cracking jokes, wouldn’t stop talking, didn’t listen, sometimes confused.

No one talked about the specific details surrounding Friday’s shooting, but they all said, “He didn’t deserve to die. He wouldn’t hurt anyone.”

“I don’t know what happened. He wasn’t a good driver. What if he meant to push the brake but pushed the gas instead? Why did they have to shoot to kill?” Juarez-Munoz asked.

After life support was turned off, Juarez-Munoz waited for her son to die, although she said his date of death was June 17 -- the day he was shot. When he was finally gone, she said her goodbyes and eventually made her way out to the ICU waiting room. She sat down with a small box of photos of her boy – baby pictures, second birthday, Kindergarten graduation, Lake Elsinore Little League.

“We will miss him so much,” she said, as she pulled from the box her son’s birth certificate, which documented his arrival at an Anaheim hospital. “He wasn’t perfect, but he was a good kid with a big heart.”

Per his wishes, Fernandez’s organs were donated.