Officers shot a possibly armed and dangerous driver late Monday night at the end of a wild chase through San Bernardino County.
The chase began when they tried to pull over the driver following an armed robbery at a home in Hesperia, officers said.
Deputies with the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department said at times the driver was speeding down the roadways at triple-digit speeds.
Officers say the suspect is known to them, but have not disclosed what crime they committed to achieve that status. They did report that the suspect had two handguns with him when the alleged crime occurred.
As SBSD officers chased the dark blue Infiniti down the street, Ontario police assisted in the pursuit from their helicopter above.
Around 9:45 p.m., the suspect entered the northbound lanes of I-15 toward Cajon Pass, where the chase began and where officers believe the person lives.
As the chase continued into the high desert, officers successfully performed a PIT maneuver on the suspect’s vehicle, halting the pursuit very briefly.
Despite this, they refused to get out of their vehicle and surrender, leading to a minutes-long standoff with deputies before attempting to drive away from deputies.
Once again they maneuvered the suspect through PIT, three more times as they attempted to flee and somehow the vehicle did not become disabled and still attempted to drive away.
With five SBSD patrol cars following closely behind, they were able to successfully box the vehicle, crashing into the suspect’s car as well as each other’s vehicles, ultimately bringing the chase to an end.
Officers opened fire at one point and the suspect was hit multiple times. Their conditions were unknown when a San Bernardino County Fire Department ambulance arrived to provide treatment and take them to a nearby hospital.
One officer was trapped in his vehicle after the pursuit came to a halt.
Officers closed both sides of I-15 for the investigation. It was unclear when the lanes would reopen. California Highway Patrol officers also responded to the scene to assist with traffic control, but they said Caltrans was contacted for a hard closure so the investigation could continue.
With SkyCal overhead, one could see the massive traffic building on both sides of the highway before the southbound lanes opened about 15 minutes later. Northbound lanes remained affected, with no clear timetable for when they would reopen.
