POLICE SAY DRUG AGENT SHOT MAN IN SELF-DEFENSE

San Jose police on Thursday said the state drug agent who shot a
43-year-old man near a downtown retirement home acted in self-defense
after the man allegedly gestured in a way to suggest he was armed.

"The involved officer was trying to protect himself," said homicide
Lt. Glenn McCourtie. "He perceived he was in imminent danger, and the
suspect did, in fact, have what he perceived was a weapon. He believed
the suspect had a firearm."

The state Department of Justice is withholding the name of the agent
involved in Tuesday's shooting.

A law enforcement source familiar with the investigation said Rodolfo
"Rudy" Cardenas twisted around Tuesday afternoon as he fled from the
uniformed agent and was holding a digital scale as if to simulate a
pistol. Cardenas was misidentified as a parolee the agents wanted.

The source said Cardenas, a father of five, indicated to relatives he
would rather die than go back to prison, and might have deliberately
provoked the agent to draw his gun -- an account Cardenas' family and
an eyewitness dispute.

"I think they're trying to cover themselves," said Cardenas' brother
Alfred Cardenas on Thursday night while relatives gathered for a
candlelight vigil. "He was very happy, happy about starting a new job
and working through problems with his wife."

Dorothy Duckett, a 78-year-old resident of Shires Memorial Center,
looked out her fifth floor window after hearing a gunshot and, she
said, saw Cardenas pleading for his life.

"I watched him running with his hands in the air. He kept saying,
'Don't shoot. Don't shoot,' " Duckett said. "He had absolutely
nothing in his hands." No weapon was found with Cardenas.

Karyn Sinunu, Santa Clara County assistant district attorney, would
not confirm or deny the claim Cardenas provoked the shooting.

"Obviously, it's a complex story," Sinunu said. "There's got to be
a reason why he was running. I've heard a ton of rumors. I'm not
commenting on anything like that. It's too early to comment on the
facts of the case."

Thursday evening, more than 150 mourners, including friends and
relatives of Cardenas held a candlelight vigil at the lot where he was
shot. They wept, prayed, recited poetry and sang hymns and
Latin-American folk songs as they denounced his death and called for
justice.

"All they did was shoot and ask questions later," said Jesse
Villarreal, Cardenas' nephew.

"We're all angry," said Raul Cardenas, who attended his brother's
vigil wearing a yellow jacket inscribed with a bull's-eye and the
words "Police target."

Cardenas had a criminal history that included a mid-1990s stay in
Pelican Bay State Prison on drug and assault charges, and misdemeanor
arrest warrants for failing to appear in court on a 2001 speeding
ticket and a d0omestic violence complaint.

Reached earlier this week, Cardenas' wife said she and her husband
were working through their problems.

Cardenas became the target of a police pursuit at midday Tuesday after
he was seen speeding from state agents who had been staking out a
duplex on North 14th Street where Cardenas' friend David Joseph
Gonzales had been staying.

The agents were after Gonzales for a parole violation.

Gonzales, 37, had been convicted of assault with a deadly weapon in
1995 and had prior convictions for assault and possession for sale of
the drug PCP.

Justice Department agents -- with their lights and sirens on -- chased
Cardenas as he fled in a Dodge van.

On North Fourth Street, just south of St. James Street, Cardenas
stopped his van and ran into an alley with a state narcotics agent
following. "Stop running. Get down. Get down," neighbors heard the
agent say.

Cardenas then hurdled a 5-foot chain-link fence and continued to race
across a parking lot, while the agent stopped at the fence and angled
his gun through the fence before firing.