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Officer and suspect shot in Paso Robles

October 27, 2012

Article and photos by DANIEL BLACKBURN

Investigators at suspect’s car.

A high-speed, early-morning car chase in Paso Robles ended Saturday in a fusillade of bullets, leaving a California Highway Patrol officer and a suspected parolee hospitalized with gunshot wounds.

At about 5:50 a.m., a CHP officer attempted to pull over a vehicle during a routine traffic stop on Highway 101 near the northbound Spring Street exit.

The driver sped off, down Spring Street, at a high rate of speed before crashing into a tree and an antique store near 13th Street. The suspect then fled on foot several blocks to the east, where he encountered more Highway Patrol officers and Paso Robles police.

Small red flags on the street marked where the suspect fell. A reporter was awakened by the barrage of gunfire and, minutes later, the scream of sirens.

Cmdr. Brian Hascall of the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Department said the wounded officer was treated and scheduled to be released from the hospital midday Saturday. The suspect was said to be in surgery at 2 p.m. suffering from multiple bullet and shotgun slug wounds. Neither has yet been identified.

Sheriff’s Cmdr. Brian Hascall talks to reporters.

Hascall said his department is handling the primary investigation, with help from special units of the Highway Patrol, Paso Robles Police Department, and the county district attorney’s office.

This article was posted at 2:30 p.m. and will be updated as more information becomes available. (As of 7:30 a.m. Sunday, no additional information or identifications have been forthcoming from sheriff’s investigators.)

Suspect was shot at 14th and Park streets.

A deputy interviews witness.

 


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Just thought I’d mention…the shootout occurred within a very few blocks of Danika’s insurance office (17th St. block of Spring).


The driver crashed in in the 13th Street area, and fled east for “several blocks.”


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And??? It was 5:30 on a Sat. morning. I don’t think she was in any danger.


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What is the point of that? The incident was not even close to the insurance office, which is actually 18th and Spring. The driver fled EAST for several blocks, than means left to right, not NORTH toward 18th St. Who cares anyway, does every incident revolve around Danika? Oh wait, maybe this happened in the alley where soooo much activity happens. Not.


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This article sure is confusing. When I read this article, I wondered how the Officer got shot. It say’s after encountering more LE to the east, there was a barrage of gun fire but no exchange of gun fire is mentioned. I thought that the CHP might have been hit by friendly fire and wondered if the perp ever pulled the trigger or even had a gun.


As it turns out this question has been clarified in other press. The perp and the downed Officer shot each other. Somebody slaked on this piece in my opinion.


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I could not find information about the suspect or about the officer, other than just the basics, as included in the CCN article.


Therefore, I don’t understand claims that the suspect was a “dirtbag,” etc.


I understand why the police are reluctant to fully inform the public, but it does contribute to making comments from a place of ignorance. It also leaves people upset–not knowing is worse than knowing, IMO, in most situations.


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How can you say he is not a dirtbag? He shot and hit an officer for doing his job. He was only being stopped for traffic violation and turn it into a high speed chase and attempted to kill an officer trying to escape. Yes you are correct he is a model citizen racially profiled by the man only defending himself.


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Mary,


Dirtbag definition in this case: “one who evades the police by speeding off in a reckless manner, putting other citizens in a life and death situation, and crashing his car into a store where there could have been the possibly of injuring or killing others. Bullets fired, police injured.”


Do you need another definition of “dirtbag” that would be more apropos to the situation?


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Mary: obviously, people like you have become the problem in a civilized society when you are constantly defending these dirtbag because you don’t know one when you see it in your face. I say too bad the officer did not kill this slim bag (feel free to ask if you need a definition). We need to put in end to this type of behavior and filling the prisons is not the solution. These are losers,by choice, as we spend entirely to much time, money and resources on these dirtbags and this is the result we get. Stop feeding,clothing, housing and pandering to these people and make them take care of themselves. I am getting of the negative results for our investments.


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What we need to get back to is the old “Code of the West!”

http://www.legendsofamerica.com/we-codewest.html


There are many unspoken rules with the tried and true Code of the West, of which, one of my favorites is; “Never order anything weaker than whiskey and always fill it to the brim.” Okay, that being said, enough coddling of the criminal element with the plethora of laws on the books that fall short, or are expunged because of a technicality, and at times, not even followed.


So, what should we do? Before we got all politically correct and became pussies, we had the Code of the West. As an another example, if a man stole another’s horse and caught, he was hung that afternoon. No appeals, no attorneys muddying things up, no taxpayers paying for death row costs, no candy @ssed protests, etc. Simple enough.


If the Code of the West worked then, then why couldn’t it work now if we went back to it? Of course, we’d all have to carry firearms which in and of itself, would prevent a lot of crime. Yes, we’re always going to have that anomaly of an instance where one is killed that shouldn’t have been, but that exists now in many cases.


Let’s all meet at the local saloon and talk this over!


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Back in those days, many Americans lived in what is variously called “a state of nature,” “anarchy,” etc. The “West” was sparsely populated, many areas were only territories, Indian country, and/or virtually uninhabited. There were very few laws, and they were pretty simple. Not carrying a weapon generally was considered unthinkable, insane even.


In other words, America was a Libertarian paradise.


Now look at us. We are a bunch of hopeless sissies.


Scared of our own shadows, we can’t even defend ourselves from the bandits, the psychos, the gangbangers, or the wicked.


Fear governs our lives. We are afraid of everything. Fear, fear, fear.


I’ll take the Old West of Wild Bill Hickock any day over this fearful world of cowering, police state intimidated nerds.


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“Libertarian Paradise” doesn’t work in modern-day cities and towns.


IN a very sparsely area, where the people don’t have access to city-supplied clean water, etc., then libertarian approaches are often needed to survive. Those were the conditions in much of the “old west.”


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