Undercover Chula Vista Officer Kills Suspect During Drug Bust

A Chula Vista police officer working undercover Thursday shot and killed a man who resisted arrest after trying to exchange stolen property for heroin, police said.

Lt. Dean Girdner of the Chula Vista Police Department said the name of the officer would not be released because he was working undercover. He said the name of the suspect was being withheld pending notification of next of kin.

Girdner added that the department would investigate the shooting, followed by a routine investigation by the San Diego County district attorney’s office.

“We’re not sure exactly why the shot was fired,” Girdner said. “The gun went off while the suspect was resisting arrest. The suspect was shot once.”

He died at 9:45 a.m. after being taken by ambulance to UCSD Medical Center in Hillcrest.

Girdner said officers were serving a search warrant in the 1400 block of 2nd Avenue in Chula Vista about 8 a.m. Thursday. Four arrests were made, and officers seized 37 packets of heroin.

During the arrests, two of the officers were summoned to a service station at 3rd and Palomar in Chula Vista. At the station, one of the officers contacted a man who was with two others in a car, Girdner said.

The man got into the car being driven by the undercover officer. He asked to exchange stolen property for heroin, Girdner said; the officer tried to make an arrest, the suspect resisted, and a shot was fired.

Girdner said the two other men were taken into custody, then released. One of them was cited for possession of a hypodermic needle. Girdner said no evidence could be uncovered linking the two to the man who was shot.