Officer Kevin Tonn, 35, was shot and killed on 1/15/13 while responding to a possible burglary in progress on the 200 block of F Street in Galt around 11:18 a.m. Officers arrived on the scene at 11:25 a.m. and found that the door of a duplex had been kicked in. While officers were interviewing neighbors, one of the witnesses pointed down the road to some train tracks, roughly a block away, which they thought may have been the burglary suspect shortly after 11:30 a.m. Tonn parked his patrol car along the tracks, left his canine partner, Yaro, a German shepherd, inside and tried to contact the man. Tonn attempted to approach the man, but the man became aggressive and an altercation between Tonn and the suspect ensued and he called for emergency back up at 11:34 a.m. At some point during the struggle, the suspect pulled out a hand gun and shot Tonn once in the head and fired several shots at the second officer who responded to the burglary call. Two minutes later a second officer reported shots fired and an “officer down.” The second officer, who was not hurt, was not able to return fire because of the position in which he had taken cover. Tonn also did not fire any shots. The first officer, Tonn, was transported to Kaiser Permanente South Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead. The shooter also died from a single self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head and was later identified as Humphrey Kenneth Gascon Jr., 30, of Galt. As it turned out in the investigation, Gascon, the person who shot Officer Tonn had nothing to do with the burglary and was later found out that the person that did the burglary was actually a family member of the one that reported the burglary. Before joining the Galt Police Department in September 2009, Tonn previously worked in New York as a firefighter and paramedic and then a fire inspector. Prior to that, he served in the military as a police officer in the U.S. Army. His canine partner Yaro was not injured in the incident. Officer Tonn had been with the department 3 1/2 years. He was not married and didn’t have children. It is the first line-of-duty death for the Galt Police Department. Officer Tonn’s K9 Yaro died on 9/13/22 at the age of 15. after being retired to live with his family. Thousands attended Officer Tonn’s funeral including his K9 partner Yaro along with approximately a dozen other police K9 officers with their canines. Officer Tonn received full military honors and also a five helicopter fly over at the service. A memorial was unveiled in his honor on 1/15/15, “Kevin Tonn Fallen Heroes Memorial”. A K9 trust fund has been set up in Tonn’s name at Premier West Bank, 9340 East Stockton Blvd., Elk Grove, CA 95624. The account number is 82804382.
Humphrey Kenneth Gascon Jr. had only minor traffic infractions, but no felony arrests. Gascon could have been arrested for carrying a loaded firearm in public.Gascon had been arrested for driving under the influence in Nevada but had no history of violent crime.
