Police Shoot Man Who Allegedly Killed Wife

ONTARIO — A man who allegedly stabbed his wife to death then was chased by police after carrying off a cash register from a gas station was shot to death by an officer Sunday after he jumped into an unoccupied squad car and tried to ram his pursuers, authorities said.

It was only after the man was dead that Ontario police determined he was wanted for questioning in the stabbing death of his wife at their Rancho Cucamonga apartment around 5 a.m.

The identities of the couple were not immediately released, said Ontario police Det. Michael Macias.

The chase began around 11 a.m. in Ontario when police spotted a green Geo Metro similar to one that had fled a gas station holdup, Macias said. The robber, who stood over 6 feet tall and weighed more than 270 pounds, had grabbed the cash register from the Mobil station, police said.

Officers chased the car for about three miles, through a neighborhood and onto a freeway. After one tire disintegrated, the man drove another quarter-mile and struck a guardrail, Macias said.

A police car pinned the Geo Metro against the guardrail. When a second police car arrived, two officers tried to arrest the man, who broke away and leaped into a patrol car.

As a third police car set its bumper against the commandeered patrol car, the man put the car in reverse and floored it, Macias said. “The tires were smoking and the rear end of the unit was starting to jump as it continued to push the third police car,” he said.

One of the officers shot several times, killing the man.

A passing motorist found the cash register on a freeway ramp, police said.