SAN DIEGO (CNS) - A suspect in the carjacking of a sedan who led the California Highway Patrol (CHP) on a high-speed chase from Riverside County to Otay Mesa was shot and killed by Customs officers at the border station there Saturday.
"The CHP terminated their pursuit of the vehicle which continued to the border where the vehicle stopped, then started to back up before going forward again," San Diego Police Lt. Lee Norton said. "At that point, Customs officers felt threatened and they fired on the vehicle striking and killing the male driver."
The shooting victim was not identified. No law enforcement officers were injured.
Norton said homicide detectives were investigating the incident and that the Otay Mesa Border Patrol Station would remain closed until that investigation is complete.
Travelers are being urged to divert to the Tecate or San Ysidro points of entry along the U.S-Mexico border.
Customs agents opened fire at 10:34 a.m. in the southbound lanes of the border crossing, just north of Tijuana and at the end of state Route 905. The shooting followed a the wild chase from Riverside County 75 miles to the Mexican border.
In the Riverside County town of Perris, a sheriff's deputy heard a call about a carjacked silver Chevrolet Impala, and at 9:33 a.m. began chasing it. A high-speed chase across surface streets reached Interstate 215, and the car was driven south.
California Highway Patrol officers picked up the chase, Riverside County sheriff's Deputy Mike Vasquez said.
After passing through Murrieta and Temecula just before 10 a.m., CHP officers from the Inland Empire handed off the chase to their colleagues working out of Oceanside, as the Impala sped at about 100 mph into San Diego County.
The chase traversed San Diego on Interstate 15 and other freeways. The motorist then veered east on Route 905, the access road to the eastern border crossing at Otay Mesa that is an effective dead end.