JURUPA VALLEY, Calif. — A Southern California sheriff's deputy was shot and killed Thursday while trying to stop a car and the suspect was later killed, Jurupa Valley Mayor Chris Barajas said.
The Riverside County sheriff's deputy pulled over a vehicle just before 2 p.m. in the city of Jurupa Valley, the sheriff's department said in a Facebook post. The deputy was shot at some point during the traffic stop and later died at the hospital. Barajas also said "the suspect has been apprehended and is deceased."
"Our community is devastated by the loss of one of our sheriff's deputies," Barajas wrote in a Facebook post. "Our thoughts are with the officer's family and all the law enforcement community."
The deputy's name was not immediately released. Sheriff Chad Bianco will hold a press conference later Thursday. He confirmed the deputy's death to multiple news outlets.
The sheriff's department posted on Twitter around 2:45 p.m. that the agency was investigating a shooting in Jurupa Valley and asked people to stay away from the area. It was not immediately clear what prompted the original traffic stop.
Authorities said the deputy was shot when he tried to stop a pickup truck in a residential neighborhood across the street from an elementary school, according to multiple TV news reports.
The driver then led police on a high-speed chase along several freeways. The chase, which was followed live on TV, ended on Interstate 15 in Norco, a few miles south of Jurupa Valley, when a sheriff's armored truck rammed the fleeing pickup and pinned it on an embankment.
TV reports showed bullet holes in the windshield.
The city of Jurupa Valley contracts with the Riverside County Sheriff's Department for its policing services.
Jurupa Valley is about 45 miles (72 kilometers) east of downtown Los Angeles.
