A sea of navy blue flooded an Oakland courtroom Monday as dozens of Fremont police officers took time off work to see the man accused of shooting fellow officer Todd Young get formally charged.
"We come from Fremont and we're not used to shootouts and certainly not one of our officers getting shot," Bill Veteran, with the Fremont Police Department said.
Andrew Barrientos, who glanced at the officer-filled audience and grimaced and declined to enter a plea to a long list of charges including attempted murder, carjacking and shooting at an occupied car during his short court appearance.
According to court documents, Barrientos admitted shooting Young, who was in plain clothes at the time, but says he didn't know he was a police officer.
Fremont Police Chief Craig Steckler disputes that claim. "That's not true I'm not going to release information on the investigation but in trial we'll prove that's not true," Steckler said.
Barrientos' attorney refused to take questions following court, but said the shooting may have been a misunderstanding.
"I will say our deepest best wishes go out to the officer and his family during his recovery. Whether this turns out to be an intentional killing remains to be seen," attorney Annie Beles said.
Young is expected to make a full recovery, but remains in serious condition and is still in a coma at Highland Hospital in Oakland.
Fellow officers say they want the person responsible to pay.
"We want him to know he's going to get the full extent of the law." Steckler said. "What he did was wrong and we feel he should pay the consequences for those actions."
