Suspect Fleeing Burglary in Irvine Killed : Crime: Off-duty patrolman shoots suspect in Long Beach.

A man was fatally shot here Sunday by an off-duty California Highway Patrol officer after fleeing from Irvine, where he was suspected of burglarizing an apartment.

Long Beach Police Lt. Philip King said the man was shot in a parking lot at Bellflower Boulevard and East 23rd Street as he ran from a car about 7 p.m. Two other suspects were detained there.

The CHP confirmed that one of their off-duty officers, who happened to be nearby, shot the suspect. The officer was not immediately identified.

Earlier a couple who live in an apartment in the 3700 block of Parkview in Irvine had come home to surprise a man and woman who had broken into their apartment, according to Irvine Police Sgt. Tom Little. The man assaulted one of the residents with a crowbar but the victim was not badly hurt, Little said.

The two burglary suspects, one of whom reportedly had a gun, then ran from the apartment and joined a third person in a white Chevy pickup truck waiting outside. The three then fled north on the San Diego Freeway.

Seal Beach police spotted the pickup truck on the freeway near Long Beach and followed it to the parking lot, where they stopped it with the assistance of the CHP and a Sheriff’s Department helicopter, Little said.

At least one of the suspects fled and was shot. He was taken to Long Beach Community Hospital where he was pronounced dead, King said. His identity was not immediately revealed.

Circumstances surrounding the shooting were not immediately known. Police spokesmen could not say if the suspect pointed a weapon or fired at the officers, and it was not known whether the other two suspects also fled on foot after the truck was stopped.

King said that the two surviving suspects, a man and a woman, could be charged with murder because their associate was killed in the commission of a crime.