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Ontario police shoot man who smuggled handgun into squad car after arrest, authorities say

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Ontario Police Department officers shot a man already in a squad car after they failed to find a gun he’d hidden and he opened fire on them Friday afternoon, the department said in a news release.

Officers were sent to a disabled vehicle in the 500 block of West Holt Boulevard near San Antonio Avenue just before 3:15 p.m., and when they arrived, they found 42-year-old Christopher Urena of San Dimas “acting erratically near the vehicle,” the release said.

Urena was wanted for alleged domestic violence, and when officers arrested him and put him in the back of a squad car, he pulled out a firearm he had “concealed on his person” and shot at the officers, who returned fire, police said.

Urena, who “sustained a non-life threatening injury during the incident,” stayed barricaded in the patrol car for several hours before he surrendered and was taken back into custody, police said, adding that they found a handgun at the scene.

No officers or bystanders were injured.

After his release from a local hospital, Urena was booked into the West Valley Detention Center on “numerous felony charges, including attempted murder of police officer,” the release added.

Anyone with information is asked to call the Ontario Police Department at 909-986-6711 or Detective Gregg Clinton at 909-408-1033.  Information can be reported anonymously by calling WeTip at 800-78-CRIME or online at wetip.com.