Deputy Shot After Orange County Chase : Shoot-Out in Posh Area Leaves Suspect in Car Theft Critical

An Orange County sheriff’s deputy and a suspected car thief were wounded during a shoot-out this morning in a quiet cul-de-sac in the exclusive Nellie Gail Ranch area of southern Orange County, authorities said.

The shooting, which left the suspect in critical condition with two bullet wounds and the deputy with a minor wound from a shot that grazed his head, occurred after a 5-mile chase from Mission Viejo.

Both men were taken to Mission Community Hospital, where the deputy was listed in good condition.

The identities of the suspect and deputy were not immediately available.

A spokesman for the Orange County Sheriff’s Department said the chase began in the 22000 block of Barlovento in Mission Viejo at 7:47 this morning.

The deputy approached a male driver in a late 1980s model silver Lincoln Continental with Oregon license plates that had been reported stolen from the San Francisco area, Orange County sheriff’s spokesman Lt. Richard Olson said.

As the officer walked up to the car, the driver sped away southbound. Olson said he is uncertain whether any shooting occurred during the car chase, which involved two sheriff’s cars and several backup vehicles.

At the investigation scene, however, bullet holes riddled the front windshield of the suspect’s vehicle, as well as the passenger side windows of both the front and back doors. One sheriff’s patrol car had a bullet hole in the lower left side of the windshield.

The car chase ended when the man stopped his vehicle in the 27100 block of Sundowner Drive, a cul-de-sac residential street with about six houses, in the Nellie Gail area of Aliso Viejo. Two sheriff’s deputies’ cars chased the suspect to the area and two backup cars were on their way, Olson said.

The suspect, who Olson said was armed with a handgun, fled his car on foot through the back yards of several of the homes on the west side of the street, and two deputies followed. Olson said the man shot one of the officers in the forehead during the foot pursuit. The bullet passed through the skin around the skull and then came out, Olson said.

During the foot pursuit, the man was shot twice, Olson said.