A man who San Diego police had been pursuing Sunday morning on Interstate 805 exchanged gunfire with officers in Kearny Mesa, and one officer was shot in the chest, police said. The man was killed.
The shooting happened about 8:15 a.m. near Mesa College Drive and Health Center Drive, police said. Fellow officers raced the wounded officer to nearby Sharp Memorial Hospital.
"Right now she is in good spirits. She sustained one injury, one gunshot wound," Police Chief Shelley Zimmerman told City News Service at the hospital, two hours after the shootings.
The suspect was fatally shot, and police later learned his vehicle, a silver Jeep, might be linked to a series of shootings aimed at buildings in the Kearny Mesa area, including the headquarters of San Diego Gas & Electric.
The officer was shot as two other officers exchanged gunfire with the man, following a pursuit that began at 7:40 a.m. on I-805 near state Route 163. The chase ended with the man bailing out of his Jeep on Route 163 near a thicket of landscaping where the two freeways come together.
Acting homicide Capt. Mike Hastings told CNS the pursuing police officers had lost the Jeep. The officer who was shot was one of several setting up a containment perimeter near the abandoned Jeep when the shooting occurred, Hastings said.
Officers ran after the man, who pulled out a handgun and fired at officers, hitting the female officer in the upper chest, Hastings said. It was not clear yet if she was the closest one to the man, he said.
The suspect was killed in the shootout, Hastings said.
U-T San Diego reported that Hastings said at least one officer at the shooting scene was equipped with a body camera, but it wasn't known if the camera was on or if video exists of the shooting.
Another officer used a trauma kit immediately, then loaded the bleeding officer into a squad car for the one-block drive to Sharp's emergency room.
Police quickly knocked down Internet rumors that the hospital was on lockdown or somehow involved.
Zimmerman said the injured officer has been with the department for five years. She was a training officer who was working with a rookie, who was not hurt, the chief said.
The shot officer was going through a medical procedure, and was talking and smiling, police officers told CNS in a hospital waiting room. She was in a lot of pain, they added.
10News quoted Zimmerman saying, "This is another reminder of how dangerous situations can be. Whenever we hear something like this, all of us take a deep breath and hope."
Police later learned the gunman's Jeep matched a vehicle connected to a series of shooting vandalism cases. Two occurred at the SDG&E headquarters — on April 7 and May 8. The building is a quarter mile away from the shooting scene. Several other businesses in the area also have recently been hit by gunfire and SDG&E had posted a $10,000 reward for information about the shooter.
A gray SUV, possibly a Jeep Cherokee, had been seen near at least one of the shooting incidents, SDG&E officials said last week.
