A woman was fatally shot by police Wednesday after she plowed a pickup into an El Cajon police sergeant on a walkway outside department headquarters, authorities said.
After the truck hit the sergeant — sending him flying — the driver backed up and started to come at him again, according to San Diego police homicide Acting Lt. Jonathan Dungan. At that point, Dungan said, the injured sergeant and a second officer who had run over to help both opened fire on the driver.
Police pulled the woman from the pickup and attempted life-saving measures. She died at a hospital, Dungan said. San Diego police are investigating the shooting as part of a countywide protocol designed to keep law enforcement agencies from investigating themselves.
Although it initially appeared the sergeant had suffered a broken arm, he was taken to a hospital and cleared by medical staff who determined the 25-year department veteran had sustained minor injuries.
Police have tentatively identified the driver as a woman in her 20s but said they are withholding her name until her family is notified of her death.
Just what prompted the bizarre incident remains under investigation.
“This is a scary event. Those officers were standing in front of their station, not taking any enforcement action, not trying to contact anyone,” Dungan said.
The incident happened just before 12:45 p.m. in the parking lot and walkway on the south side of the headquarters building on Civic Center Way in downtown El Cajon.
The sergeant and a lieutenant were on the walkway, in full uniform as they discussed logistics for a ceremony outside the station for a captain whose retirement party was set for that afternoon.
According to Dungan — who said he had seen security footage of the parking lot encounter — it appeared the woman had been parked in a stall near the long walkway leading to the entrance of the station. It did not appear she had any contact with the sergeant or lieutenant.
At some point, she backed out of the spot, turning the Toyota Tundra and appearing as if she was going to drive away. “Instead, the truck pointed toward the officers and then stopped for a moment,” Dungan said.
He said the sergeant and lieutenant “appeared to recognize that the truck was doing something strange — and then out of nowhere, the truck veered directly toward the officers.”
“The officers tried to get out of the way, but the truck turned quickly and actually struck the sergeant,” he said, “throwing him into the air.”
Dungan said the driver backed up the truck and accelerated toward the officers a second time. As she did, the sergeant and an officer who came to help fired multiple shots at her.
The truck came to a rest in a bush-covered embankment alongside the police station. The pickup remained there hours later, with visible bullet holes, broken windows and blinking hazard lights.
Witness Richard Sheriff said he and a group of friends were in a nearby plaza when he heard a commotion.
“All of a sudden we heard some yelling, and then a couple pops, a car crashed, and then a whole bunch of rapid fire,” Sheriff said. “I’ve never experienced anything like that in my life.”
After the truck came to rest, Sheriff said he saw officers pull the woman out and they started life-saving measures.
Dungan said neither the sergeant nor lieutenant were wearing body-worn cameras.