Pursuit Ends in Fatal Shooting

November 28, 1999

SAN DIEGO - It began with a routine stop for an expired car tag. It ended three hours later after a terrifying 200-mile freeway chase through Southern California that was broadcast live on TV.

The unidentified motorist, who led police on at least four different freeways before finally confronting officers, was shot and killed by authorities Friday.

San Diego Police Lt. Glen Breitenstein said three highway patrol officers and three San Diego officers had fired shots. An autopsy was planned for Saturday.

The chase began about 6:45 a.m. in San Bernardino County when a sheriff's deputy tried to stop the man in Rancho Cucamonga for expired registration tags, said sheriff's spokesman Chip Patterson.

The man sped off in his white 1979 Datsun 280Z toward Interstate 10 and the deputy called highway patrol officers, which along with various police departments then chased the man through San Bernardino, Riverside, Los Angeles, Orange and San Diego counties, reaching speeds up to 90 miles per hour.

Television news helicopters quickly picked up the chase and broke into other programming to carry it live. At one point, cameras showed the man smoking a cigarette, checking his pager and scribbling a note, which he tossed from the window.

Once he entered San Diego County and appeared headed for the U.S.-Mexico border, police deployed a spike strip on Interstate 805 near state Route 94, puncturing his left front tire.

When the man's car rolled to a stop, he displayed a handgun outside the window. He then got out and started walking onto the freeway. There was some discussion with the officers, who had stopped freeway traffic and were out of their cars with their weapons drawn.

"One of the sergeants yelled, 'He's got a gun!' " California Highway Patrol spokesman Phil Konstantine said. "Then shots were fired."

Television cameras in San Diego used a wide-angle shot to show the shooting at a distance. At least one Los Angeles television station, Fox affiliate KTTV, showed a startling close-up of the man being shot, then pulled back to film him on the ground.

"Any time you have live, breaking news, you should err on the side of prudence," said Jim Sanders, news director at San Diego's KNSD-TV, an NBC affiliate. "You do what you can to tell the story without being gratuitously graphic."

Sanders said carrying such chases live is of news value because they often shut down traffic on major freeways.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• police
• police shooting
• police pursuit
• datsun 280z
• 280z

[dwarfcar76]

Thumbs up if you hate it when they "Pan Out"

[ta2dave]

I love a happy ending!

[bp0819]

there were plenty of other things that he wasnt supposed to do besides pointing a gun at the police

[915buck]

Excellent, dead scum!!

[paintball644]

This is whats wrong with america dont "Pan out" the people have the right to see a criminal get shot or in iraqs case a firefight should be viewed on TV (not all of it) but the people need to know so stop unreasonable censoring!!!!!!!!!!!

[jsuds12]

@MrSirlulzalot an LAPD bullet

[Viper6454]

Who cares the cops back then were as fucking trigger happy as they are now i really don't believe that a cop wouldn't not wanna kill someone or shoot them that is complete bull shit.

Why do i say this? Its cause how 89% of cops now a days act and abuse the badge

[TheImpossibleMan]

@dwarfcar76 self-imposed censorship

[EggofTreachery]

Nice Datsun!

[xSubsistancex]

ohhh god the car is ok...phew that right there is a classic datsun Z

[triceey07]

Is it me or Did the newscaster seem like Blah

Female Newscaster: Oh yeah he has a gun in his right head

Male N.WCaster: Yeah they are going to tell him to put the gun and yeah & if he dont and he points it at them then they will shoot...Oh yeah he did somthing that he wasnt supoose to do and get shot!

They sound bored like hell ..Like yeah we already know what going to happen.