SAN JOSE — Sitting before a Morgan Hill police detective, the San Jose police veteran wasn’t interested in talking about allegations that he drunkenly fired his gun inside the home of his ex-girlfriend last week.
Timothy Lee Faye, a 22-year member of the San Jose Police Department, instead chose to unleash a volley of profanities to mock the official interrogation.
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“F***ing leave it alone and just walk the f*** away,” Faye said, according to a police report accompanying two felony reckless shooting charges filed against him last week.
In the wake of Faye’s June 18 arrest — during which police say Faye showed obvious signs of intoxication — colleagues in the police department told this news organization that Faye’s alcohol abuse was well known and flagged to supervisors multiple times over a span of several years. They described him as a potential liability for the department; in addition to suggesting he enter rehabilitation and treatment, they questioned whether he should remain in patrol and other roles that entail regular community contact.
Those calls, they say, went unheeded by police brass.
In response to an inquiry, the police department said in a statement that “we take these allegations extremely seriously,” but declined to respond to any specific claims.
“Due to the ongoing nature of the criminal and administrative proceedings, we are limited in what we can share at this time. However, we can affirm that when concerns are brought forward regarding any officer’s conduct, the department follows established procedures and protocols to assess and address those concerns appropriately,” the statement reads.
The department added: “We recognize the importance of public trust and transparency, and we remain committed to accountability, due process, and the safety and well-being of our community. Our responsibility to uphold the public’s trust guides our response, and we will act in accordance with the facts and the law.”
During his police interview in Morgan Hill, Faye maintained a defiant tone, including when Detective Kyle Tolentino asked Faye about a bullet fragment recovered from his pants pocket, a bullet police say was embedded with carpeting from the apartment where the gunfire was reported.
“So I had a f***ing spent bullet in my f***ing pocket?” Faye said, according to the detective’s account. “Yeah, I did. Because I like that bullet.”
Faye also apparently tried to pull rank on his interrogator. In the police report, Tolentino wrote Faye “would compare his 20 plus years of his law enforcement experience and inquire on my lesser years of experience so that he could point out the disparity between the two.”
After making yet another demand for Tolentino to leave, Faye ended the interview by asking for an attorney, but not before quoting a line uttered by rapper Ice Cube in the 1995 movie “Friday.”
“I’m done. Like … bye, Felicia,” Faye reportedly said. “I want a f***ing lawyer. How about that? Get the f*** out of here. F***ing leave me alone.”
Faye, 48, is being held in the Santa Clara County Main Jail and faces two felony counts of willful discharge of a firearm with gross negligence in the South Bay. He could also face a misdemeanor child abuse charge in Monterey County stemming from a June 15 allegation he assaulted his fiancée’s 8-year-old daughter by grabbing her by the hair and holding on for at least 30 seconds.
The police report reveals detailed accounts of Faye’s struggles with “severe” alcoholism, and indications of post-traumatic stress from his police work. Faye alluded to the latter in another profane tirade against the detective.
“Like, dude, I f***ing killed two people,” he said, according to the police report. “Like, you don’t understand how f***ed my train is. So stop talking to me like I’m a f***ing child … Like, do you want me to tell you go f***yourself like another time? Or can we just be done?”
Faye was one of two officers who shot and killed 27-year-old Thompson Nguyen, who was roaming the grounds of the Metcalf Energy Center while carrying an ax in January 2018. The shooting was examined in a two-year investigation by this news organization on the police using serious and deadly force on mentally ill and intoxicated people; Nguyen had a history of mental illness and was experiencing a psychiatric crisis when he was killed.
He was also one of two officers who shot and killed 22-year-old Edrian Rivera in August 2015, after Rivera reportedly confronted them while holding a meat cleaver. Rivera was being sought in the stabbing moments earlier of a man he accused of being rival gang member, according to authorities.
Faye is set to return to court Wednesday where he is expected to be arraigned with a new attorney after the county public defender’s office declared a conflict at an initial court hearing last Friday. He is currently being held in the Santa Clara County Main Jail, without bail, after Judge Robert Foley revoked his $200,000 bail at that same hearing.
The earlier arrest in Monterey might have gone unnoticed by the broader public if not for what he did afterward. On June 17, after taking refuge in the Morgan Hill home of an ex-girlfriend, he was intoxicated, as she told police he often was, and was holding his handgun.
He was despondent over the arrest and its likely impact on his police career, and with the handgun out, suggested that the woman “could just pull the trigger for him,” according to the report. As the woman was preparing to the leave the residence out of fear for her safety, she told police that she “heard a loud gunshot from the bedroom,” and that “she believed that Timothy had just shot himself,” but upon entering the bedroom found Faye “lying on the bed, alive, staring up at the ceiling.”
She left and called police soon after. Morgan Hill police officers went to the residence, and unsuccessfully tried to call him on his phone. The officers contacted SJPD administrators to come up with a plan to make contact with Faye, who stayed in the home overnight.
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At some point the next day, Faye is believed to have driven his Chevy Tahoe to a local Safeway and left the vehicle there, then got a ride to a nearby Chick-Fil-A restaurant. Morgan Hill special-operations officers caught up to Faye in the restaurant parking lot and arrested him, according to the police report.
At the time of his arrest, police described him as having slurred speech, watery eyes, an unsteady gait, and the odor of alcohol.
In subsequent interviews, the woman revealed that at some point in the past two years, while she was dating Faye, he drunkenly fired a shot into her bedroom closet in the same home. Police corroborated that shooting after recovering a bullet embedded in the drywall — which had been patched and repaired — resulting in a second shooting charge.
Faye was reportedly irate at the fact that special-operations officers were assigned to take him into custody, and cited his own special-operations experience to Tolentino.
“Dude, that was f***ed up … Like I’m just f***ing chilling at f***ing Chick-Fil-A ,” Faye said, according to the detective.
In addition to remanding Faye to jail, Judge Foley also issued a protective order for his ex-girlfriend. According to the district attorney’s office, Faye faces a maximum of three years in prison for each shooting count. Court records as of Monday showed no charges had been filed in Monterey County for the child abuse allegation.