[420 Girl]

One person was shot and killed this morning by sheriff's deputies during a marijuana eradication operation on the eastern edge of Santa Clara County, near the Stanislaus County border, according to a law enforcement official.

Deputies from the Santa Clara and Alameda county sheriff's departments were combing the hills near Mines Road when a suspect was shot and killed about 11 a.m., according to Sgt. Rick Sung of the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office.

It is believed Santa Clara County deputies fired the shots.

No officers were injured in the shooting, Sung said.

As is protocol, the Santa Clara County District Attorney's Office is monitoring the fatal shooting with two investigators on the scene.

In California, between mid-summer and early fall is harvest time for marijuana cultivation, and also the time when authorities are on the lookout for pot farms.

"We see something like this every once in a while, you know, there's a lot of these marijuana patches out this way," said Howard Miller, 69, owner of the Junction Bar and Grill Restaurant at 47300 Mines Road, which claims to be "as close to the Old West as you can get."

"The marijuana patches don't bother me," Miller said. "But I don't like the shootouts."

Miller described the area as very mountainous, where most of the homes are hidden off the main road. His restaurant, which boasts boars' heads on the wall, Harley's in the parking lot and delicious venison burgers, is often the main hub for the community. The mailing address is Livermore, but technically it's located in Santa Clara County and overlooks the San Antonio Valley.

"Everyone will know about this very soon," he said.

The last time sheriff's deputies fatally shot a pot farm suspect was July 11, 2008. That's when two Santa Clara County sheriff's deputies killed Artemio Calderon Maldonado of Modesto, who along with two other suspects, was allegedly tending a pot farm in the Saratoga hills. Authorities said one of the three suspects had aimed a gun at the deputies, which is when two deputies fired a number of rounds.


NewsHawk: Ganjarden: 420 MAGAZINE
Source: San Jose Mercury News
Author: Mark Gomez, Sean Webby and Lisa Fernandez
Contact: San Jose Mercury News
Copyright: 2010 San Jose Mercury News
Website: One dead in shootout with deputies during Santa Clara County pot field raid

* Thanks to MedicalNeed for submitting this article


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