Authorities ID narcotics suspect shot by deputies

SAN DIEGO (CNS) – Authorities released the name Monday of a narcotics
suspect fatally shot last week by deputies trying to arrest him at a North
County apartment complex.

Michael Paul Napier, 33, was inside a garage in the 2000 block of South
Melrose Drive in Vista when a sheriff's gang-enforcement team confronted him
shortly before 6:30 p.m. Friday, Lt. Glenn Giannantonio said.

When the detectives identified themselves and ordered Napier — the
subject of a felony drug warrant and a suspect in two recent burglaries — to
show his hands, he instead moved both of them toward his waistband, according
to Giannantonio.

“The deputies were aware Napier was a documented gang member with a
history of possessing firearms,” Giannantonio said.

Fearing that the suspect was reaching for a gun, Deputies Brandon
Boisseranc and Nicholas Danza opened fire. Napier died at the scene despite
life-saving efforts on the part of the sheriff's personnel and paramedics.

“After the shooting, it was determined that Napier did not have a
weapon on him, although there was a knife stuck in the garage wall next to
where he was standing,” Giannantonio said. “A search of the garage yielded
stolen property from at least one residential burglary and one vehicle
burglary.”

Boisseranc has been with the San Diego County Sheriff's Department for
six years, and Danza for seven.