Assault Suspect Dodges Bullets, Not Arrest

A police officer opened fire on a 22-year-old Fullerton man suspected of attempting to run him down with a pickup truck Saturday as the officer was investigating a traffic collision.

Fernando Rojas, who was not wounded by police gunfire, was arrested shortly after the 11 a.m. incident and arrested on suspicion of assault and assault with a deadly weapon on an officer.

Placentia Police Sgt. Ken Gardner said officers were called to the scene of a traffic collision at Placentia Avenue and La Jolla Road. They found several occupants of one car fighting with the driver of the second vehicle in the intersection.

As police arrived, one of the men from the first car, Rojas, got behind the wheel of the second vehicle and attempted to run down one of the officers, who was not identified by authorities. Gardner said the officer managed to avoid being hit and then fired “several rounds” from his service revolver at the fleeing pickup.

Gardner said Rojas stopped the truck, jumped out and ran away. He was captured a short time later, hiding under a nearby freeway overpass, and was taken to UCI Medical Center in Orange where he was treated for a scalp laceration. Gardner said he did not know how Rojas was cut, but he said it was determined by authorities that the wound was not caused by a bullet from the officer’s revolver.

Rojas was listed in stable condition Saturday night.

Police said the cause of the incident was still under investigation, and it was not known whether others involved in the collision and subsequent fight were being held by police.