A man suspected of fatally shooting a woman outside an apartment complex in Carlsbad and stealing her SUV late Friday died early Saturday in a shootout with police in front of an In-N-Out Burger in Orange County.
Video taken at the restaurant on 24001 Avenida de La Carlota in Laguna Hills show people inside the restaurant running for cover. Patrons outside crouched under tables as dozens of gunshots rang out from the suspect and officers exchanging fire around 1 a.m.
One video briefly shows a man with short, dark hair and a red shirt running from the stolen vehicle in the middle of the street toward the restaurant, with his hands apparently pointing toward the officers.
Orange County sheriff’s spokesperson Sgt. Gerard McCann said he couldn’t comment on how many officers were involved in the shooting or how many rounds were fired by officers and the suspect. The department shared photos of a semiautomatic handgun with a wrapped grip and attached flashlight that authorities say belonged to the suspect, who has not been identified.
The situation began around 9:53 p.m. Friday in Carlsbad when police responded to a report of gunfire in the parking lot of an apartment complex in the 2300 block of Rising Glen Way. When officers arrived, they found a woman from multiple gunshot wounds. Paramedics pronounced her dead at the scene, according to Carlsbad police.
The woman’s maroon Kia Sorrento had been stolen, and the department sent the license plate number to surrounding jurisdictions in the hope of finding the suspect and the vehicle, police said.
At 12:18 a.m., the Laguna Beach Police Department “received notification from a license plate reader at El Toro Road and Laguna Canyon Road that the vehicle was entering their city,” according to an Orange County Sheriff’s Department news release.
About 37 minutes later, officers in Newport Beach spotted the stolen vehicle near Newport Coast Drive and Pacific Coast Highway. The suspect did not stop when officers tried to pull the car over, and during the ensuing pursuit, an Irvine Police Department K-9 unit joined the chase, authorities said.
The pursuit continued to the southbound 5 Freeway, according to the sheriff’s news release, where the suspect exited at El Toro Road, drove through a business complex and headed north on El Toro Road.
Police said the suspect stopped the car in the middle of the El Toro Road, just south of Avenida De La Carlota, got out of the vehicle and started firing at approaching police cars.
The suspect was taken to Providence Mission Hospital in Mission Viejo, where he was pronounced dead, McCann said.
The identity of the woman who was killed in Carlsbad has not been released. The Orange County Sheriff’s Department is investigating the pursuit and shooting.
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