A California Highway Patrol officer was killed and two others were injured after a gunbattle erupted near a Southern California freeway late Monday afternoon.
The Highway Patrol said in a statement that three of its officers and a suspect were involved, and one of the highway patrol officers later died. The suspect is also dead, NBC Los Angeles reported.
The shooting began just after 5:30 p.m. west of Interstate 215 in Riverside, which is east of Los Angeles, the station reported.
Riverside police Officer Ryan Railsback told the Los Angeles Times that the incident appears to have started as a traffic stop and that the suspect opened fire. He told NBC Los Angeles that the male suspect was “down and neutralized.”
The CHP decided to impound the truck that was pulled over and a tow truck was called when the suspect reached into the back of the truck, apparently to retrieve personal items, and grabbed a rifle and opened fire, the Associated Press reported, citing authorities.
Video from the scene showed what appeared to be a law enforcement officer on the ground and being dragged to safety by other officers. The video records the sound of gunfire. The officer is loaded into the back of the police vehicle, the video shows.
Another law enforcement officer is loaded into a helicopter that landed on a roadway, the video shows.
Aerial video of the scene showed paramedics attending to people in another car.
The Times reported that a woman was driving home with her 6-year-old twins when a bullet went through her windshield. Nobody in that vehicle was harmed. Another man behind that vehicle led the woman and her children to safety, the newspaper reported.