Robbery Suspect Killed in Shootout With Deputies : Crime: Gunman jumps from auto, opens fire on approaching patrol cars after bank holdup, freeway chase that ended in San Juan Capistrano.

A suspect in a bank robbery was shot to death by Orange County sheriff’s deputies after a brief freeway chase that reached 90 m.p.h. and an exchange of gunfire Friday.

Deputies followed the unidentified man south on Interstate 5 until he exited in San Juan Capistrano, stopped his car on a semirural road and suddenly opened fire as three patrol cars converged on him, authorities and witnesses said.

“He just jumped out of his car and started firing,” said Angel Segura, who had followed the chase after the vehicles passed him on the freeway. “He and those policemen were maybe 10 or 20 feet from each other.

“He just kept shooting at (the deputies) until he got shot,” Segura said. “It was kind of horrible.”

No deputies or bystanders were hurt in the gun battle during which more than 10 shots were exchanged, shattering the front windshield of a patrol car, according to sheriff’s spokesman Lt. Dick Olson.

Shortly before the 2 p.m. shootout with deputies, the gunman reportedly robbed a Hawthorne Savings Bank at 25242 McIntyre St. in Laguna Hills, about five miles from the scene of the shooting.

FBI spokesman David Stuck said a stocky, bearded man wearing a hard hat and construction clothes entered the bank about 1:30 p.m. and passed a note to tellers demanding money.

Stuck was not sure whether employees were verbally threatened, but said nobody was hurt during the robbery. As the man left the scene in a white Buick with an undisclosed amount of money, witnesses wrote down the car’s license plate number and called the sheriff’s office.

Just south of the La Paz Road exit on Interstate 5, a sheriff’s deputy spotted the Buick and followed, trying not to be seen. The patrol car, while waiting for a backup to arrive, stayed close as the suspect’s car exited at Crown Valley Parkway and immediately got back on the freeway.

When the second police car joined the pursuit, “they turned on their lights and he sped off,” according to Olson. The chase reached speeds of 90 m.p.h. and lasted about four miles, until the suspect exited at Junipero Serra Road.

The vehicle turned right on Camino Capistrano at approximately 50 m.p.h. before stopping suddenly in a semirural stretch of road, Olson said.

The suspect shot at the two patrol cars that converged on him, and deputies returned fire as a third patrol car reached the scene, Olson said.

“All I can tell you is that (the gunman’s weapon) was empty,” Olson said. The weapon, identified by Olson as a Browning 9-millimeter semiautomatic pistol, carries 13 bullets.

“I was really surprised to see that guy stop like that,” said witness Segura, who explained that he had followed the chase because he thought he recognized the suspect. “You never know what people are going to do.”