Riverside, Calif. — A shootout near a freeway left a California Highway Patrol officer dead and two others wounded Monday before the gunman was fatally shot, authorities said.
A CHP officer pulled over a white GMC pickup truck at 5:37 p.m. on a road just off Interstate 215 east of Los Angeles, Riverside police spokesman Ryan Railsback said. He didn’t immediately know why the car was stopped.
The CHP decided to impound the truck and a tow was called. While the officer was filling out paperwork, the driver reached into the back of his pickup – apparently to retrieve personal items – but instead grabbed a rifle of unknown caliber and opened fire, authorities said.
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One CHP officer was shot, followed by two others, Railsback said.
Video showed one officer being taken away in a police car. Another was taken to the hospital by helicopter. That officer was the one who succumbed to his wounds.
The CHP later tweeted that one officer had died. There was no immediate word on the conditions of the other officers. Names of the officers were being withheld.
Riverside police and Riverside County sheriff’s deputies also were called and more gunfire erupted as the gunman took cover in front of his car. He was wounded and pronounced dead at a hospital, authorities said.
Video from the scene shows bullet holes in the front windows of two patrol cars and large holes blown in their back windows. What appeared to be an assault-style rifle was on the ground.
Two civilians were hurt – one was in another car and hit by flying glass that caused minor injuries, Railsback said. The other civilian’s injuries also were minor.
Riverside Police Chief Sergio Diaz told reporters it wasn’t clear where the truck was heading, where it was from or why the suspect opened fire. He said police body cam video and civilian eyewitness accounts would be part of the investigation of the shooting.
Jennifer Moctezuma, 31, of Moreno Valley told the Los Angeles Times that she was driving home with her 6-year-old twins when a bullet flew through her front windshield.
Charles Childress, 56, a retired Marine from Moreno Valley, was in the car behind her.
He led the family as they crawled to the bottom of a bridge to hide and none were harmed, the Times reported.
“He’s my hero,” Moctezuma said.
