Man With a Machete Slain on Freeway as He Charges Officers

A man wearing a skull mask and shouting that he was the Grim Reaper was shot to death as he charged with a machete at police officers, vowing to slash them and “make their cars disappear,” police said.

Authorities had turned a fire hose on the man to subdue him, but he ran through the high-pressure stream of water, and officers opened fire Sunday night from about 15 feet, said the California Highway Patrol.

The attack on Interstate 80 at the Carquinez Bridge caused a massive traffic jam, backing up homebound Easter traffic 10 miles and shutting down the major freeway for more than four hours.

The man was identified as George C. Miller, 56, of Smartville, said Lt. Gerald Greenhouse of the Vallejo Police Department. He was dead of a gunshot wound to the chest when he arrived at Sutter Solano Medical Center in Vallejo, and also had been hit by some buckshot, nursing supervisor Betty Safis said.

Authorities had chased Miller by car from a rest stop on Interstate 80 a few miles away, where he was reported to have threatened people with the machete, police said.

Miller, wearing military fatigues, stopped his car on a bridge and talked with negotiators for more than 40 minutes before getting out, Highway Patrolman Bill MulCrevy said.

“He claimed he was the Grim Reaper and was sent by God to clean up the place. . . . He told the officers he was going to slash them, that he was going to make their cars disappear,” MulCrevy said.

MulCrevy said two shots were fired from shotguns and one from a handgun.