It was the pop-pop sound that made Joe Evers curious as sat in his room at a Motel 6 in Sunnyvale around 2 p.m. Wednesday afternoon.
"I thought it was somebody knocking at the door," Evers said. "About 30 seconds to a minute later, we heard what sounded like more knocking. So we came out and found out it was actually gunshots."
Next door in the parking lot in front of Hobees, a white pickup truck sat there with its driver's side window shot out.
The Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety says Santa Clara police along with the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Department were in the middle of an undercover drug operation.
The manager of the Motel 6 told NBC Bay Area he saw officers shouting at a person in a car to get out. As a man got out of the car, shots were fired.
"I'm just glad I was back here," Evers said with a look of relief on his face.
The man in the truck died a few hours later at the hospital.
Local
At some point, one of the officers felt threatened enough to fire his gun. "If you feel your life or someone else's life is in immediate jeopardy, you're trained to protect yourself by responding in kind," Capt. David Pitts, a Sunnyvale DPS spokesperson, said.
The shooting happened in a high traffic area near the Mathilda Avenue and Ahwanee Avenue intersection.
An area with a lot of cars, motels and restaurants.
Evers had some concern about bullets flying around with many people nearby. "I could see where that could be. I mean anything could ricochet anywhere," Evers said.
The Hobees and a nearby Shell gas station were closed while investigators processed the scene. Shell reopened around 9:30 p.m. Wednesday night.
Hobees reopened Thursday morning.
