San Jose cop shot in 2023 ambush sues condo owner for renting to gunman

SAN JOSE — A police officer who was ambushed and shot by a man during a domestic violence call two years ago is now suing the gunman’s landlord, on the grounds that renting to him despite his violent criminal past was “ultrahazardous” negligence that contributed to the shooting.

The lawsuit filed Aug. 4 on behalf of Officer Erin Allen comes as her police career, which began when she joined the San Jose Police Department in 2013, is headed toward a premature end because of serious damage to several vital organs and her spine, her attorney said in an interview this week. Allen has been on light duty but is in the process of retiring from the agency.

At least one legal expert said the lawsuit faces a challenging road ahead, given the questions revolving around what responsibility a landlord has for renters’ actions, and when a landlord can exclude someone from housing because of a criminal history without violating discrimination law.

Mark Peacock, an Orange County-based attorney who is representing Allen, said he believes she has a strong case given what he called the egregious violence in Gabriel Mario Carreras’ background, which included separate convictions for assault with a firearm and battery on a police officer, and him still being under post-release supervision at the time of the Aug. 16, 2023 shooting on Auzerais Avenue.

“The types of crimes he was previously convicted of are outrageous,” Peacock said in an interview. “When a landlord is agreeing to rent to this person, they are basically creating a dangerous condition. Anybody going to that door could be walking easily into an insane environment, and that’s what Officer Allen did here. Thank God she wasn’t killed.”

The defendants listed in the lawsuit include individually named owners of the two-story condo property where the shooting occurred, as well as the Lee and Ikeda Family Trust. A message to a publicly listed contact for one of the defendants, presumably a trustee, was not returned before publication of this story.

Steven Clark, a legal analyst, criminal-defense attorney and former prosecutor, called the lawsuit “somewhat novel” before saying it will have to overcome notable legal and policy hurdles, including the legal doctrine known as the “Fireman’s Rule,” which restricts liability for injuries suffered by first responders like firefighters and police officers since they knowingly take on a job with inherent dangers.

“Obviously this is a very sympathetic case, where you have a plaintiff who was protecting our community. And it’s a difficult issue for landlords, who have to deal with numerous discrimination laws on renting to people. But they do have a duty to protect people from dangerous tenants to the extent they knew about it,” Clark said.

On the morning of the shooting, Allen and another officer went to a condominium complex for a report from Carreras’ wife that her husband was drunk, tried to hit her, and broke down a bathroom door, while telling her, after she had told him she was pregnant, that he “did not want the baby.”

The officers called out to the couple through an open second-floor door to a balcony; Carreras emerged and fired a single shot from a .38-caliber pistol at Allen, hitting her just below her bulletproof vest. Allen’s partner pulled her to safety, and a four-hour standoff ensued, during which Carreras fired two more shots inside the condo unit, hitting a couch and kitchen wall.

The woman eventually exited the residence with the gun, and told police that Carreras had passed out and dropped the gun by his side. Allen spent nine weeks in the hospital before being discharged.

Carreras was convicted in August 2024 of attempted murder of a peace officer, two counts of shooting in an inhabited dwelling, misdemeanor assault, and several other crimes. But his sentencing has been delayed for nearly a year after his defense attorneys filed a Racial Justice Act motion after a domestic violence expert testifying for the prosecution at trial gave remarks that amounted to stereotypes about Latino people and their propensity for domestic violence.

Carreras’ attorneys asked for a reduction in the charges or a new trial, while prosecutors argued no changes were necessary because the expert’s remarks elicited objections and were stricken from the record at trial. Thursday, a judge validated the RJA claim but declined to order a new trial and preserved the most serious convictions for Carreras, meaning he will be required to serve a mandatory life prison sentence.

Regarding the lawsuit, Clark said the premise of the litigation elicits broader policy questions, including what kinds of past crimes are acceptable to tolerate when choosing to rent to someone.

“How far do you draw the line? If someone has a DUI, do you not rent to them because they might hit someone in the parking lot?” he said. “You can’t just have everyone with a criminal record being homeless. It’s a public policy tug-of-war.”

Peacock said the readily available information about Carreras’ history of violence, which should have been revealed by a diligent background check, forms part of his contention in the lawsuit that the shooting was uniquely “foreseeable” and overcomes the legal protections the defendants could claim under the Fireman’s Rule.

“They assumed a big risk,” he said of the landlords. “He had clear signs of a propensity to do outrageous criminal acts. They do a background check, and don’t do anything in response to what pops up. They’re creating this condition.”

Originally Published: August 8, 2025 at 11:06 AM PDT on siliconvalley.com

In The Media

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/san-jose-cop-shot-in-2023-ambush-sues-condo-owner-for-renting-to-gunman/ar-AA1Kkzg0

https://www.mercurynews.com/2025/08/08/san-jose-cop-shot-in-2023-ambush-sues-condo-owner-for-renting-to-gunman/