A San Bernardino County Sheriff’s deputy was shot and wounded during an attempted traffic stop within the city of San Bernardino Tuesday afternoon, and the shooter remained at large, the department announced.
The unnamed 27-year-old deputy, who was shot at 4:14 p.m., was alert after the shooting and was transported to the Community Hospital of San Bernardino, Sheriff Shannon Dicus said in an evening press conference.
Police are not yet sure why the deputy initiated the traffic stop, Dicus added.
Surveillance footage taken near the scene of the shooting shows the patrol car with its siren blaring as it pursues a white car. As the deputy’s vehicle rounds a corner in pursuit, what sounds like at least 20 gunshots ring out, and the patrol car comes to a halt.
The full extent of the deputy’s injuries has yet to be determined, but Dicus noted that they appear to be “superficial injuries to his face” and some shrapnel in his arm.
“According to the medical staff … it looks like he’s going to come through this OK,” Dicus said.
As of about 10 p.m., the deputy was “in stable condition and in good spirits,” Dicus added on Twitter.
Aerial video from Sky5 showed a burned-out Sheriff’s Department vehicle at Bobbett Drive and East Olive Street, though currently, law enforcement is not sure how the car caught fire.
“We have no idea right now how that patrol car was on fire … That’s going to be part of the investigation,” Dicus said.
The San Bernardino Police Department is asking the public to avoid the area near Baseline Street between Valencia and Tippecanoe avenues “due to police activity and an ongoing investigation,” the Police Department wrote in a tweet.
The deputy was passing through the city of San Bernardino when the traffic stop was made, so the shooting investigation is being handled by the city’s Police Department, Dicus said.
“They have not identified a suspect yet, but it’s an ongoing, active investigation,” Dicus said.
As of about 9:30 p.m. Tuesday, no arrests had been made in the shooting, police said.
But the vehicle believed to have been involved in the incident, a white BMW, was located at an apartment complex on Date Street in San Bernardino, San Bernardino Police said around 11:30 p.m.
Because the assailant remains at large, officers are not ruling out any motivations behind the attack, Dicus added.
“We don’t know the suspect,” Dicus said. “We don’t know anything about him, how random this is. We could be dealing with somebody with this pretty serious arrest more for a heinous crime. There’s a lot of violence going on right now, as you well know, violent crimes are on the rise, and our deputies constantly have to be alert for whatever the threats are out there.”
No further details were immediately available.