Northern California authorities shot and killed 56-year-old Mark Jensen outside his Durham home on Tuesday night after a code-enforcement visit over his marijuana grow escalated into an armed standoff.[1] Code-enforcement officers had approached Jensen at home on Monday and told him he was violating the county’s marijuana cultivation law.[1]
Jensen grew enraged, made threatening calls to police and code-enforcement officers, and officers obtained a warrant for his arrest.[1] Hearing that he had guns, a SWAT team and crisis negotiators went to his home, where Jensen at one point threatened to shoot a motorist and then holed up inside.[1] When he finally came outside, he had a loaded handgun that he pointed at deputies, and he was killed with a single shot.[1]
District attorney’s findings
Butte County District Attorney Mike Ramsey later ruled that the sniper, deputy Matt Calkins, acted in self-defense.[2] Calkins fired a .308-calibre rifle from a prone position behind a tree in an orchard, from nearly 130 yards away, believing Jensen was pointing his black Glock handgun at him.[2] Jensen never fired his .45-calibre Glock, and a forensic autopsy found that a high-powered projectile shattered inside his chest, shredding his lungs, heart and liver.[2]
Jensen’s blood alcohol level was 0.22, and Ramsey said it would have been difficult but not impossible for Jensen to have seen the camouflaged sniper from that distance.[2] Jensen had torn out the marijuana plants after a violation notice was posted, then made a series of short threatening calls to county offices.[2] His wife said he held a decidedly anti-government point of view and had recently been in a dark downward spiral of paranoia and anger.[2]
Jensen, who had twice run unsuccessfully for the county Board of Supervisors, also aimed a long gun at a female driver who had pulled over in front of his residence, where a State of Jefferson flag was flown.[2]
