El Cajon Detective Shoots Drug Suspect

An El Cajon police detective shot and critically injured an unidentified drug suspect Tuesday after the man stabbed two uniformed officers, police reported.

Lt. Bob Lein, head of investigations for the El Cajon Police Department, gave this account:

Police and undercover detectives were conducting a sweep of Wells Park at 1:40 p.m. when the man fled, pursued by a detective and a uniformed officer.

The man ran through the grounds of El Cajon Valley High School, assaulting an unidentified school official, then ran into a field behind the 1000 block of East Main Street.

A second uniformed officer joined the chase; the suspect drew a knife and assaulted the two uniformed officers, cutting one on the shoulder and the other on the hand.

The detective shot the suspect in the upper chest. Lein said the man continued the assault and had to be subdued before being taken to Sharp Memorial Hospital for surgery.

The man, estimated to be in his late 20s, was listed in critical but stable condition after surgery, nursing supervisor Pauline Renner said.

While detectives in an unmarked car were taking the injured officers, whom Lein declined to identify, to Industrial Medical Center in Santee on California 67, three men in a car threw a beer bottle at the detectives’ vehicle and made obscene gestures, Lein said.