Oceanside CA— Early Saturday, May 15, 2015 at 3:16 a.m. Oceanside Police officers were flagged by a reporting party at the 7-11 4625 Frazee Road about a possible armed robbery in progress.
The officers got the attention of the clerk and called the clerk out of the store. They saw a person matching the description of the suspect in the rear of the store. The clerk told them the suspect, later identified as Mark Tucker, was armed with a knife and had told him to give him the money from the cash register.
The officers quickly formulated a plan. They approached and saw the suspect by himself inside the store about 10 yards in front of them.  Officers gave him verbal commands to surrender.
The suspect said they were going to have to shoot him, several times. He then walked towards the officers with his hands at his waist.
One of the officers deployed a 40mm sponge round to the suspect’s abdomen. It appeared to have little effect. It was followed by a taser deployment by another officer. The suspect went to the ground and was taken into custody. The suspect was not injured. An 8 inch K-Bar type knife was found in Tucker’s front waistband.
Mark Tucker, 30, of Oceanside was charged with armed robbery.
“The officers used considerable restraint, considering they were confronting a suspect they knew to be armed. They took care to remove witnesses and victims from the store. They put a plan in place that had multiple layers of less than lethal force options.” Lieutenant Leonard Cosby said in a statement released this morning.