CHP officer shot in leg on a San Diego freeway

A California Highway Patrol officer was shot in his right thigh during a struggle Wednesday evening while investigating a crash on the Interstate 8 freeway in San Diego’s Mission Valley, authorities said.

The wounded officer was in serious but stable condition Wednesday night at Scripps Mercy Hospital in Hillcrest, according to CHP Capt. Michael Harris, who spoke to reporters outside the hospital. The injured officer’s name was not released, but he has worked for the Highway Patrol for eight years, Harris said.

Harris said the officer was investigating a crash about 6:15 p.m. near the ramp from the eastbound 8 to the northbound I-805 freeway when he “became involved in a struggle with a pedestrian, resulting in a single gunshot. The officer was wounded in his right thigh.”

Harris did not say whether the gunshot came from the officer’s gun or whether the other man was armed. He said it “has yet to be determined” whether the officer fired his gun.

Passersby helped “subdue” the suspect until other officers arrived and arrested a 25-year-old San Diego man, Harris said. The suspect’s name was not released.

“We are very, very grateful for” those who helped, Harris said, adding that “we are all praying that [the officer] makes a full recovery swiftly.”

Harris said it was unknown Wednesday night whether the man who struggled with the officer was involved in the crash the officer was investigating.

Authorities shut down both directions of the I-8 in the area, beneath the 8-to-805 interchange, for several hours. The eastbound lanes were reopened around 9 p.m., but the westbound lanes remained closed late Wednesday night.

This is the second shooting in four days involving CHP officers on local freeways, though they are not believed to be related. On early Sunday morning, someone in a passing vehicle fired shots as CHP officers and firefighters worked at the site of a fatal collision on the 805 near state Route 94. Nobody was struck by that gunfire.

“We don’t have any information that leads us to believe that [Wednesday’s shooting] is connected to any other incident,” Harris said.