As the motorcyclist reached speeds of nearly 150 miles an hour, tailed by a phalanx of police cars on the 210 Freeway, he was putting distance between himself and the home where, according to authorities, he had just shot and killed a sheriff\u2019s deputy.<\/p>\n
With viewers watching on live television Monday afternoon, he easily evaded a motorcycle officer who tried to stop him. He appeared to lift both hands off the handlebars as he pulled the slide back on a gun. <\/p>\n
His attempt at a quick escape ended when he plowed into a gray Toyota Camry, flipping over the front of his bike and launching him at least 10 feet in the air.<\/p>\n
It quickly emerged that the driver of the Camry was a San Bernardino County narcotics deputy who was off duty when the pursuit started, went back on duty and deliberately swerved into the motorcyclist, later identified as 47-year-old Angelo Jose Saldivar.<\/p>\n
Saldivar was captured by television cameras sitting up on the pavement before being airlifted to a hospital, where he was in stable condition Tuesday. He is expected to be charged in the coming days in the death of San Bernardino County Sheriff\u2019s Deputy Andrew Nunez, 28, who had worked for the department for six years and leaves behind a 2-year-old daughter and a pregnant wife.<\/p>\n
Three policing experts told The Times that the deputy who ended the pursuit was probably justified in using deadly force because the motorcyclist was a suspect in a homicide and posed a threat to the public.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn this case, they could have shot or used whatever means necessary to prevent further injury or loss of life without harming others,\u201d said Greg Meyer, a use-of-force expert and a former captain with the Los Angeles Police Department. <\/p>\n
It\u2019s unclear how the deputy got involved in the pursuit or when he notified the department he was back on duty. Many law enforcement officers carry their handheld radios off duty and turn them on if there\u2019s police activity nearby, Meyer said.<\/p>\n
Sheriff\u2019s officials have not identified the deputy and declined to make him available for interviews on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Nunez was among the deputies who responded to a domestic violence call at 12:37 p.m. at a condominium on Hollyhock Drive in Rancho Cucamonga, where a man with a gun was reportedly threatening a woman. <\/p>\n
When deputies arrived, Saldivar immediately opened fire and struck Nunez in the head, killing him, according to sheriff\u2019s officials. <\/p>\n
Sheriff\u2019s officials did not provide more information on Tuesday about the domestic violence call that brought deputies to the condominium. San Bernardino County Superior Court records show that Saldivar and his wife finalized a divorce in August. <\/p>\n
As deputies rendered aid to Nunez, Saldivar fled on a motorcycle, Sheriff Shannon Dicus said. <\/p>\n
He sped east on the 210 Freeway into Upland before smashing into the Camry near Campus Avenue, authorities said. <\/p>\n
Ed Obayashi, a Modoc County sheriff\u2019s deputy and legal advisor to police agencies, said that although it\u2019s \u201chighly unusual\u201d for an off-duty deputy to intervene in a high-speed chase, his actions probably fall within established legal precedent. <\/p>\n
In April 2007, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of a deputy in Georgia who terminated a high-speed pursuit by pushing his bumper against the back of the other car, causing it to drive off the road and crash. The suspect, who was left a quadriplegic, sued, alleging that excessive force had deprived him of his Fourth Amendment right against unreasonable seizure. <\/p>\n
The justices held that the man\u2019s flight from police created a substantial and immediate risk of serious physical injury to others and that the deputy\u2019s attempt to terminate the chase was objectively reasonable. <\/p>\n
\u201cDeadly force is appropriate when the subject presents an imminent threat of death or great bodily harm to officers or others, and the fact that his subject had already shot an officer and was fleeing in a way that endangered other motorists is likely to meet that standard,\u201d Seth Stoughton, a University of South Carolina law professor and former Florida police officer, said of the San Bernardino County deputy\u2019s actions.<\/p>\n
A sheriff\u2019s spokesperson did not know whether the department is conducting a use-of-force investigation. Obayashi predicted that the deputy\u2019s actions would be found to be within department policy. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe just shot a cop, and it is reasonable to assume he will shoot others, including pursuing officers,\u201d Obayashi said. \u201cNo one is going to lose sleep over what happened here at the conclusion of this chase, given what had unfolded before.\u201d <\/p>\n
On Monday night, law enforcement officers and firefighters gathered outside Arrowhead Regional Medical Center to salute Nunez\u2019s body as it was carried out of the building. A motorcade escorted the body to the San Bernardino County coroner\u2019s office.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re embedded in sorrow,\u201d Dicus said at a news conference earlier that day. \u201cUnfortunately for our department, this has happened way too often.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As the motorcyclist reached speeds of nearly 150 miles an hour, tailed by a phalanx of police cars…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27842,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8,20912,6246,167,20907,20910,2037,20911,20909,17410,20338,3335,1594,2592,20908,2637],"class_list":{"0":"post-27841","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-california","8":"tag-california","9":"tag-california-headlines","10":"tag-california-news","11":"tag-condominium","12":"tag-department","13":"tag-deputy","14":"tag-dramatic-action","15":"tag-ed-obayashi","16":"tag-high-speed-chase","17":"tag-live-television","18":"tag-motorcycle-officer","19":"tag-motorcyclist","20":"tag-nunez","21":"tag-official","22":"tag-other","23":"tag-pursuit","24":"tag-saldivar","25":"tag-sheriff"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27841","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27841"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27841\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27842"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27841"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27841"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27841"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}