Officers commended for role in capturing suspect

Daly City’s police chief gave a commendation Tuesday morning to two officers for their role in chasing down and ultimately shooting a suspect who was threatening his ex-girlfriend with a knife days after he was released from prison, according to Daly City police.

The suspect, identified as 38-year-old Shikeb Saddozai, is scheduled to appear in court this afternoon on charges of stalking, criminal threats, burglary, domestic violence, brandishing a deadly weapon, possession of burglary tools, resisting arrest and battery.

He has a history of violence against law enforcement, including biting the ear of a U.S. Marshal while fleeing from arrest in the Philippines last year, according to the San Mateo County District Attorney’s Office.

Daly City police Chief Manuel Martinez Jr. presented a certificate of commendation to Officers Marilyn Drexler and Peter Nelson for their role in capturing Saddozai on Feb. 8, according to police.

Police wrote in a Facebook post:

“Both officers were commended for their courageous and tenacious actions in taking the violent career criminal into custody after seeing him fleeing on a wooded hillside,”

When Saddozai was released from prison on parole earlier this month, he set out to find his ex-girlfriend of six years and mother of his child, prosecutors said. He tracked her down on Feb. 6 and allegedly got into a fight with her, choking and hitting her.

He later sent her a text message saying he was going to get her, according to prosecutors. On Feb. 8, he cut his tracking bracelet off his ankle and broke into the woman’s apartment in the 800 block of Campus Drive, then waited for her to arrive home, police and prosecutors said.

When she got there at about 12:45 p.m., he allegedly threatened her with a knife and chased her around the apartment and outside. Witnesses told investigators they saw him chasing her and threatening to kill her, according to prosecutors.

Daly City police, including Drexler and Nelson, responded to the area and chased Saddozai to a backyard in the 800 block of St. Francis Boulevard, police said. When he confronted one of the officers there, one officer shot him in the arm, prosecutors said.

Which officer shot Saddozai has not been disclosed. Police said they also thought he might be armed with a handgun, but he was not. They have not said whether he was still armed with the knife at that point.

After recovering in the hospital, Saddozai was booked into jail and charged. He is scheduled to appear with his attorney Wednesday to enter a plea and remains in custody on $500,000 bail, prosecutors said.

Saddozai had just served a prison sentence for a 2012 sexual assault. He had faced charges including forcible sex acts with a minor, kidnapping and sexual battery for taking a 17-year-old girl he’d promised a ride home to a hot tub and tanning business where he performed sex acts on her, prosecutors said.

He fled to the Philippines to evade the charges but was arrested in January 2015 after a chase in Cebu that involved him jumping from a three-story condominium, hopping fences and biting the ear of a U.S. Marshal.

He pleaded no contest to a sex acts charge in August and was sentenced to 32 months in prison in October, but because he already had 821 days of credit for time served, he was eligible for parole just a few months later.