CHP Officer Shoots Man During Tussle
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A California Highway Patrol officer shot and wounded a suspect Friday after the two struggled when the man resisted arrest, a CHP spokeswoman said.
Officer Suzanne Adams, 29, stopped to investigate when she spotted Javier Florez-Martinez standing near a parked car with a broken window along southbound Interstate 15 near I-805, according to the CHP.
When Adams ordered the man to drop a screwdriver he was holding, he complied, but then resisted when she attempted to handcuff him, according to the CHP account. The two struggled, rolling down a steep freeway embankment, the spokeswoman said.
Adams first attempted to subdue the man by striking him with her baton, but he picked up a rock and tried to attack her with it, the spokeswoman said. She said the officer then fired at Florez-Martinez twice, striking him once in the left wrist.
Florez-Martinez is under guard while undergoing treatment at UC San Diego Medical Center, a spokesman for the San Diego Police Department said.
The shooting is being investigated both by the CHP and San Diego Police homicide detectives. A police spokesman said all shootings within the city limits that involve law enforcement personnel are investigated by city homicide officers.
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