Fatal shooting in Santa Nella resembled incident months earlier, records show

A violent confrontation that ended Tuesday when a Merced County sheriff’s deputy fatally shot a Santa Nella woman showed striking similarities to a prior incident months earlier involving the same woman, according to court records obtained exclusively by the Sun-Star.

Siolosega Velega-Nuufolau on Tuesday threatened a deputy with a knife, investigators said, in the cul-de-sac outside her Santa Nella home. A neighbor had reported that Velega-Nuufolau was outside with a knife, screaming for someone to call 911, Sgt. Delray Shelton reported Tuesday.

The name of the deputy who fatally shot Velega-Nuufolau on Tuesday has not been released. The deputy, described as an eight-year law enforcement veteran, was put on administrative leave, standard practice for an officer involved in a shooting.

Tuesday’s deadly confrontation was strikingly similar to a confrontation with Velega-Nuufolau in September at the same home.

Police reports and court records documenting the September incident paint a picture of a volatile home life for a woman who for years struggled with mental health issues after spending time in the Navy.

Four sheriff’s deputies pleaded with Velega-Nuufolau for nearly two hours to drop knives and check in with the Department of Veterans Affairs regarding her medication and appointments, according to reports obtained by the Sun-Star.

Her husband, Penu Maluia Nuufolau, called 911 before 8 a.m. Sept. 22 reporting that his wife threatened to commit suicide. He said she had been drinking the night before while watching football, police reports say.

Deputies found Velega-Nuufolau sitting in a wheelchair in her garage. She had two large kitchen knives in her pockets, which she removed and held in a “rude and threatening manner toward (deputies),” the deputies’ report says.

During the standoff, the report says, Velega-Nuufolau told the deputies to shoot her and “get it over with,” called the deputies “pigs” and spoke with a counselor on a suicide hotline, saying suicide by cop was the resolution she wanted.

Her husband also told the deputies his wife hadn’t taken medication for a mental condition for six months because she felt she didn’t need it, according to the police report.

The knives were 8 or 9 inches long, with blades 4 and 5 inches, the police report says.

When Velega-Nuufolau finally dropped the knives, the reports say, she assaulted one of the deputies. Another deputy fired a bean-bag round but said Velega-Nuufolau didn’t seem fazed by it. Deputies used a dog to subdue her before handcuffing her. Paramedics took her to a hospital, where she was treated for a dog bite. She was jailed for 16 days after her medical release, jail records and court records show.

Velega-Nuufolau’s next-door neighbors described the September incident as “almost the same thing” as Tuesday’s fatal confrontation.

Jorge Alvarez and Maria Salazar noted that deputies “spent a lot of time” with Velega-Nuufolau during the September incident and asked her to drop the knives repeatedly.

The couple described Velega-Nuufolau and her husband as a couple who mostly kept to themselves and would say “hello” in passing. Salazar said from time to time she saw Velega-Nuufolau helping out at Romero Elementary School, where her two sons attend.

Alvarez and Salazar said they sometimes heard the couple yelling and children crying late at night.

Accounts in court records show a volatile home life and describe her as suffering from apparent hallucinations of an “imaginary demonic animal.”

The Sun-Star left messages this week for a number listed for Penu Maluia Nuufolau, but they were not returned. No one answered the door at the couple’s Santa Nella home Tuesday.

This story was originally published December 31, 2015 at 6:00 PM with the headline "Fatal shooting in Santa Nella resembled incident months earlier, records show."