[Editor’s Note: a warning to readers, this story contains graphic details.]
According to The Pad, a tragic shooting took place on Monday involving a former employee of the gym. “In the early hours of Monday morning, our business, The Pad Climbing, was broken into and items were taken. It was later discovered that the main suspect was a former employee, Eddie Giron. Monday afternoon, upon being served a warrant by the SLO PD, Eddie shot two police officers and was killed himself,” reads the beginning of The Pad’s posts on Facebook and Instagram. A previous video on the gym’s Instagram identified some of the missing items as climbing gear, computers and iPads.
At a press conference the following day, it was reported that six officers were serving a search warrant at an apartment for possible stolen property related to a series of late-night commercial burglaries that had occurred over the last week. The two officers referenced in The Pad’s posts were identified as Luca Benedetti, who died in the shooting, and Steve Orozco, who was injured and expected to make a full recovery. The suspect, identified as Edward (Eddie) Giron, was also shot during the shooting and died from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Kristin Horowitz, CEO and founder of The Pad Climbing, which is located in San Luis Obispo, California, provided the following statement from The Pad:
“At this time, we would like the focus of thoughts, prayers and concerns to be on Detective Benedetti, his family, and his SLO PD colleagues, as well as continued prayers for Detective Orozco’s full recovery. The Pad Climbing and our climbing community is hurting alongside the greater community due to the senseless loss of life, and we will continue to work towards healing.
In regards to the suspect, who we knew as Eddie, we are heartbroken. He did work with us; he was family. It is clear to us that there were some underlying issues that caused this tragedy, but we could not imagined it would ultimately manifest in this way. As we said before, we hope that we all learn lessons from what happened. Out of respect for all involved, we don’t have any further comment at this time.”
According to the gym’s social media posts, “[The Pad] will have a counselor available at the gym as soon as possible for any community or staff member that wishes to talk.”
More information can be found at the KSBY local news article here.
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