CHP Officer Killed in Roadside Crash

A California Highway Patrol officer issuing a ticket on Interstate 5 was killed Sunday when a possibly drunk Marine slammed into his patrol car, officials said.

Stephen Linen, a 31-year-old San Jose native who has served on the force more than six years, is the second patrolman killed by an allegedly drunken driver on I-5 in northern San Diego County in less than a year.

The 6 a.m. accident closed all four northbound traffic lanes in the northern San Diego suburb of Encinitas for at least three hours and backed up cars for miles.

Lance Cpl. Jerome A. Bates, a 20-year-old Marine from Victoria, Texas, stationed at Camp Pendleton, was arrested at the scene. He was booked in the San Diego County Jail in Vista on charges of manslaughter and felony drunken driving after he failed a field sobriety test, said CHP Officer Tom Kerns. Bates was not injured.