Suspect in killing of bounty hunter is shot to death by police in San Bernardino

The suspect in the slaying of a bounty hunter was shot and killed Thursday in San Bernardino during a confrontation with law enforcement, officials said.

Riverside County sheriff’s deputies were called at 7:13 p.m. Tuesday to the 24000 block of Sunnymead Boulevard in Moreno Valley after reports of a shooting. They found James Black, a bounty hunter who was tracking a wanted felon, with a gunshot wound. Black, 42, was taken to a hospital, where the Lake Elsinore resident died.

Sheriff’s deputies from Riverside and San Bernardino counties on Thursday tracked the suspected gunman, 41-year-old Chad James Green, to a motel on South Business Center Drive in San Bernardino, according to the San Bernardino Sun. San Bernardino police and a SWAT team were also at the scene.

Green left a second-story room and did not comply with orders to put his hands up, the Sun reported. Officers shot Green as he was trying to escape.

Green had two guns in his possession, the Sun said. No officers were injured.

According to court records in Riverside and San Bernardino counties, Green had a criminal history dating to 1998 under various aliases. His crimes include burglary, assault, evasion of a police officer, possession of a firearm and the receipt of stolen property. Most recently, he was charged with one count of burglary in January when he entered a home while the resident was inside.

Records show an arrest warrant was issued for Green in April related to a previous bond forfeiture. Black was trying to apprehend Green when Green killed him, deputies said.

A LinkedIn page for James Black shows that he was a former Marine who for the last five years served as director of a fugitive apprehension company called Black Umbrella Group. In his bio, Black says he was deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq “multiple times” while serving in the U.S. Marine Corps and “has worked globally to locate and apprehend hundreds of felony fugitives in coordination with state, federal and international law enforcement agencies.”

According to the U.S. Fugitive Service International, where Black worked as a supervisor after a job as a private contractor in Afghanistan, Green escaped through a third-story hotel window after shooting Black.

City News Service contributed to this report.