Abductor Turns Gun on Himself

A 24-year-old man who abducted a woman at gunpoint in Irvine, forcing her to drive off with him, killed himself with a bullet to the head as sheriff’s deputies closed in, authorities said.

The dead man was identified as Rajeev Mathur, 24, of Lake Forest. He apparently didn’t know the woman, who was not injured, authorities said.

The incident began at 12:30 a.m. Saturday, when Allison Olszewski, 21, was parking in the carport at the Stanford Court Apartments in the 600 block of Stanford Court in Irvine.

Mathur pulled a gun and demanded she unlock the passenger door of her Saturn. Once inside, he told Olszewski to drive south on the San Diego Freeway, authorities said.

Back on surface streets, the car hit a curb at El Toro Road and Santa Margarita Parkway in Lake Forest, and either broke down or became stuck. Orange County sheriff’s deputies did not know if Olszewski hit the curb on purpose.

Shortly afterward, deputies received a call from a witness driving by who told them Mathur was pointing a gun at Olszewski and forcing her to push the car. She was screaming.

When six sheriff’s patrol cars and a helicopter arrived at the scene, Olszewski made a run for it, sheriff’s Lt. Greg Russell said.

Mathur ran after Olszewski and fired two shots either at her or into the air, Russell said.

She was not hit.

Mathur then ran from deputies along a bike bath and under a freeway overpass.

As a deputy was aiming an assault rifle at Mathur, he stopped and shot himself in the head, authorities said.

Paramedics declared him dead at the scene.