LONG BEACH, Calif. — A Long Beach Police officer fired shots through a cruiser windshield during a pursuit where a suspect driver fired shots at officers with a rifle, the Long Beach Post reported.
The Sept. 1 incident unfolded when 911 callers reported a shooting in a downtown parking lot. A caller told dispatchers that someone had shot him in the leg “with an AK-47" and fled in a vehicle.
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Body camera video obtained by the Long Beach Post shows officers responding in pursuit of the suspect vehicle. As officers in a police cruiser approached the vehicle, officers spotted the suspect pointing the rifle out the window. The suspect then fired multiple shots, the Long Beach Post reported.
“He’s shooting!” an officer says before returning fire through the cruiser windshield.
The officers continued to pursue the driver, saying he was traveling at nearly 100 mph.
The pursuit continued for 20 minutes and stretched into downtown Los Angeles, the Long Beach Post reported.
It came to a close when the suspect crashed into electrical cables as well as a fire hydrant, damaging the electrical fixtures and causing sparks to rain down over the crash scene. The crash also caused a flow of water that doused the ground near the electrical explosions.
Body camera video shows the driver getting out of the vehicle and walking across the growing pool of water with his hands raised. As he was slow to follow officer’s orders to get on the ground, one officer deployed a less lethal foam projectile, according to the Long Beach Post.
The suspect was taken into custody and has been charged with five counts of attempted murder, one count of evading police and one count of owning an assault weapon.
Neither officers nor the suspect was struck by gunfire during the pursuit. Three initial victims of the suspect had sustained non-life-threatening gunshot wounds, according to the Post.
