During a news conference at the scene Friday afternoon, San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department Deputy Olivia Bozek said that the unnamed driver was a robbery suspect who police had attempted to take into custody during a traffic stop around 12:49 PM.
When the driver refused to stop, he was chased through Fontana on the 215 freeway until reaching northern San Bernardino. The driver was going the wrong way on the freeway when he got out of his Chevrolet Tahoe. He failed to park the vehicle properly, and it crashed head-on into another vehicle.
The driver was then shot by officers who hovered above the scene in a helicopter.
— Elex Michaelson (@ABC7Elex) September 18, 2015
The three passengers in the vehicle his car hit were taken to the hospital and their condition remains unknown.
"It’s a public safety issue once he starts going the wrong way,” Bozek said. “Obviously, he doesn’t care about passengers or pedestrians or other cars."
— Melissa Pamer (@mpamer) September 19, 2015
Bozek continued on to assert that because the pursuit had reached speeds of over 100 miles per hour on surface streets, the shooting was needed to prevent "more injuries to the public," despite the fact that the suspect had already exited his vehicle.
