Man dies of self-inflicted gunshot after police chase
A high-speed chase that began in the Inland Empire and ended in South Los Angeles early Wednesday left a 19-year-old Los Angeles man dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, Los Angeles police said.
Los Angeles Police Department detectives found that before shooting himself, Adrian Soto had called his family and friends and told them goodbye.
“He was sorry, but he could not go to jail,” police said in a statement.
Soto, of Los Angeles was pronounced dead at East 43rd Street and Morgan Avenue, where the Jaguar sedan he had been driving was stopped, said LAPD Officer Jason Lee.
Three passengers got out of the vehicle and were detained by California Highway Patrol officers. But Soto, who had fired several rounds into the air with a pistol during the chase, fired another round. When officers approached the Jaguar to take him into custody, Lee said, they found that Soto had shot himself.
The pursuit began about 1 a.m., when San Bernardino County sheriff’s deputies attempted to stop the car in Yucaipa for reckless driving, sheriff’s spokeswoman Arden Wiltshire said.
The driver refused to stop and got on the 10 Freeway, heading west. CHP officers took over the pursuit in Colton. The chase continued at high speeds into Los Angeles County.
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