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Posted on 11/17/2006 12:43:08 PM PST by NormsRevenge
SOLANA BEACH – A suspected drunken driver who led authorities on a pre-dawn chase yesterday was shot and killed after he tried to run over a sheriff's deputy, police said.
Two deputies and two California Highway Patrol officers opened fire on the driver of a Dodge Ram pickup after he slammed into a deputy's car and then tried to run down one of the deputies, sheriff's Lt. Dennis Brugos said.
“After ramming the deputy's car, he backed up and rapidly accelerated,” Brugos said. “When he was 8 feet from the officers, they fired on him.”
The driver was not identified.
Brugos said the incident began at 1:25 a.m. when CHP officers tried to stop a driver suspected of being drunk on westbound state Route 78 near Jefferson Street in Oceanside.
The man refused to stop, instead taking officers on a circuitous route, first heading north on Interstate 5, then to eastbound state Route 76. He then got off the freeway and drove through Oceanside on surface streets before getting back onto southbound I-5, Brugos said.
He continued south until Poinsettia Lane/Aviara Parkway, where he got off and headed west.
Deputies, monitoring the chase, set up two spike strips on North Coast Highway 101 at Leucadia Boulevard and then on South Coast Highway at Chesterfield Drive. But the driver eluded both strips, Brugos said, adding, “He almost hit a deputy who first put the spike strip on Leucadia Boulevard.” CHP officers then tried what they call a PIT maneuver, ramming their cars into the back of the pickup to force it to spin out and stop.
The first time the truck spun but didn't stop, Brugos said. The second ramming spun the pickup again, and officers were able to box it in between Lomas Santa Fe Drive and Estrella Street, across from the Solana Beach train station, he said.
Brugos said that as two CHP officers and two deputies got out of their patrol cars and moved toward the truck – by then, it was about 2:20 a.m. – its driver rammed one of the cars and then suddenly accelerated rapidly toward one of the deputies, who was standing between the cars. All four officers opened fire.
No further information about the man was available.
The officers involved in the shooting will be placed on routine administrative leave during the investigation.
The coast highway was closed all day from Chesterfield Drive in Encinitas, where it is called South Coast Highway 101, to Lomas Santa Fe Drive in Solana Beach, where it is North Highway 101. It reopened at 6:30 p.m.
Officials also had to shut down one of the train tracks that runs along the coastal corridor, as well as the walkway over the tracks at the Solana Beach station.
One Coaster train heading south was delayed about 15 minutes, but no other significant delays occurred, said North County Transit District spokesman Tom Kelleher.
The San Diego County Medical Examiner's office said Friday that the man shot and killed by law enforcement officers after a pursuit in North County early Thursday morning was a 22-year-old active duty Marine.
His name has not yet been released.
Sadly, we lose too many Marines to drinking and driving, though not usually so violently and under these circumstances. They won't release his name until they notify his family. At least, they shouldn't. No matter how a Marine dies, his family still gets notified the same way.
Sad. They had to stop him though.
This is just a damn shame.
And almost sounds like suicide-by-police.....
Yeah, sad, according to lore most of us drunken Sailors just spent our money wildly ... too many our Department of the Navy comrades die this way.
"drunken Sailors just spent our money wildly"
Many sea-going sailors can't build up a tolerance. They binge drink and act stupid, or incoherent. They drink in a port like no tomorrow and then go to sea for a few months at a time. Whereas marines and army can hit the booze nightly, and less impacting. I knew some incredibly bright sailors and chiefs who were perfectionists on a ship, but you roll into a port, they could barely walk. Things are changing though. DWI's are not tolerated very well and you can lose a clearance, plus, well live, with killing a bunch of kids.
Prayers for the family and for the officers. They had to respond to a threat, irrespective of who was causing it. They will be scarred.
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