LOCAL : 3 Arrested in Shooting of Man at San Diego Freeway Rest Stop
Police ended a brief car chase at an Orange County shopping center this morning with the arrest of a man and two women suspected in the shooting of a vendor at a San Diego Freeway rest stop about an hour earlier.
The victim, identified as Lee Harrell, 56, was shot four times with a handgun after he told his assailant that he did not have any motor oil for sale, police said. Harrell was undergoing surgery this morning at Scripps Memorial Hospital in La Jolla.
Eric M. Hazelgrove, 30, Jennie M. Wagner, 29, and Kerry S. Wagner, 21, all of San Diego, were taken into custody about an hour after the 6:30 a.m. shooting occurred at a rest stop near Oceanside. After being spotted on the freeway, the suspects were chased to the Pavilion Shopping Center at Oso and Marguerite parkways, where they were arrested, said San Clemente Police Sgt. Nelda Gonzalez.
San Diego Sheriff’s Department spokeswoman Julie Sutton said Hazelgrove and the two women--who are cousins--pulled the maroon Dodge pickup truck they were driving into the northbound Aliso Creek rest stop near Oceanside. She said Hazelgrove then walked up to Harrell’s lunch wagon and asked if he could buy some motor oil.
“The victim (Harrell) said, ‘I don’t carry that kind of thing,’ ” Sutton said. “So the suspect pulled a gun and shot him.”
Harrell was shot in the legs, stomach and chest, police said.
A military police unit alerted San Clemente police, who were joined in the pursuit by Orange County sheriff’s deputies.
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