
Shot Five Times, This San Bernardino Sergeant Fought Back and Survived
In the stillness between gunshots, with pain flooding his limbs, Sergeant Shane Andersen made a decision. He wasn’t going to give in. The entire encounter — captured on his body-worn camera — shows those few moments where instinct takes over and thinking fades into reaction.
The incident took place on December 1, 2023, just outside a gas station on Bear Valley Road in San Bernardino County. It started with a 911 call from a woman hiding in the bathroom. Her boyfriend had threatened her with a gun, and she didn’t feel safe coming out.
“She’s still in the restroom. She does not want to go out,” the clerk told the dispatcher. Her boyfriend — Jorge Cardenas, 27 — was waiting outside in a silver Nissan Altima.
Roughly six minutes later, Sergeant Andersen arrived. His cruiser pulled in behind the Nissan, and everything unraveled almost immediately. Cardenas stepped out, drew a gun from his waistband, and fired.
“I was hit in my right thigh, my left thigh, my calf, the bottom of my foot,” Andersen recalled later. One round went through his Taser and into his vest. Five shots in total.
Somehow — maybe out of training, maybe just sheer will — he managed to radio for backup. He reloaded his weapon as Cardenas began moving again. That’s when the second round of gunfire began.
Andersen returned fire and stopped the threat. Cardenas died at the scene. No other injuries were reported.
“I knew if I could hold on and deal with him, then everyone else would be okay,” Andersen said. His voice is steady when he talks about it now, but it’s hard not to imagine the weight of what that night must have felt like — not just the pain, but the responsibility.
He spent two months recovering from his injuries. When he returned, it was without hesitation. “It mattered to me to show people that this wasn’t going to stop me,” he said. “I love this job. I’ve been doing it for 18 years. Somehow, it’s even more meaningful than I ever thought it would be.”
Since 2021, there have been 75 deputy-involved shootings in San Bernardino County, according to Sheriff Shannon Dicus. It’s a number that weighs not just on deputies, but their families too. “There’s pressure at home,” Dicus said. “People love them. They don’t want them going back out there.”
For his actions that night, Andersen received the Medal of Valor from the California State Sheriff’s Association — a gesture of recognition, though probably not something he was chasing. What he did was survive. What he still does — every day since — is show up.
For those interested in how incidents like this are documented and reviewed, California’s official standards for use-of-force investigations can be found here.
Back on patrol now, Andersen’s presence carries a little more gravity. He’s not just doing the job. He’s done what most never face — and came through it standing.