SOUTHLAND : Officer Kills Man in Clown Suit

A young Latino man reportedly wearing a clown suit was shot and killed by a San Diego police officer after the man assaulted two highway patrolmen with a bricklayer’s tool and threatened commuters on a busy freeway this morning, police said. The unidentified victim, believed to be in his late 20s, was killed when San Diego Police Officer Thomas K. O’Connell fired about eight shots from his semiautomatic weapon. The man was pronounced dead at the scene, on the southbound lanes of Interstate 5 near La Jolla.

Bill Robinson, a San Diego police spokesman, said the incident began shortly before 8 a.m. when officers spotted the man walking on the freeway’s shoulder. The victim charged at two California Highway Patrol officers who responded to the call, swinging a trowel and striking both of them during a struggle in the middle of the freeway, Robinson said. The extent of their injuries was unknown.