Police Shoot Man to Death After Chase

Police shot and killed a Los Angeles man in North Tustin early Saturday after he led police on a high-speed chase from Los Angeles and then rammed his car into an officer, authorities said.

Jose Daniel Gonzalez, 25, was shot after California Highway Patrol officers pinned him into a dead-end street in a tree-lined residential neighborhood. The officers fired a volley of shots at Gonzalez after he raced his car at them twice, Sheriff’s Lt. Dennis DeMaio said.

“He did hit one of the officers. That made a big difference,” DeMaio said.

The officer was treated for unspecified injuries, was released from a local hospital and is in good condition, DeMaio said. His name was not released.

Gonzalez received medical treatment but died at the scene, DeMaio said.

CHP officials provided few details on the predawn incident--including how many officers were involved--and referred questions to the Orange County Sheriff’s Department, which was investigating.

Officers from the Los Angeles Police Department attempted to pull over Gonzalez for a traffic violation in southwest Los Angeles, but he fled, said LAPD spokesperson Officer Don Cox.

CHP officers in Orange County picked up the pursuit on the Garden Grove Freeway, just before the driver exited south on Tustin Avenue, said CHP spokesperson Lt. Jo Ann O’Hair.

Gonzalez, whose car was rammed at least twice by pursuing squad cars, continued at high speeds along 1st Street and Red Hill Avenue, O’Hair said. He then turned onto La Loma Drive, a dead-end street in an upscale hilltop neighborhood in North Tustin, where pursuing squad cars blocked the car in, she said.

The Sheriff’s Department could provide little information late Saturday.

Neighbors reported being awakened by sirens and the pulsing thump of a police helicopter.

“We were sound asleep and I was awakened by sirens and then they cut off, which I thought was strange,” said Gloria Duncan, who has lived in the area 23 years. “Then they started up again and then they stopped, and then I heard the drone of the helicopter and then the gunshots. . . . I started to get out of bed and then I decided that probably wouldn’t be the wise thing to do.”

Another woman, who has lived in the area for more than 40 years, said she got up to comfort her granddaughter, who was spending the night. The woman, who asked not to be identified, heard what sounded like firecrackers popping.

“I didn’t recognize it as gunfire, but then you put it together with the helicopter and the sirens and I figured it was,” she said. “Everybody is a little concerned because this just doesn’t happen here. But it’s not like he was running through the neighborhood. Then the fear and everything would set your heart running.”

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Staff writer Seema Mehta contributed to this report.