Crime & Safety

Driver Refuses to Pull Over for CHP, Fatally Shoots Self at Anza Residence

A motorist who refused to stop for the California Highway Patrol fatally shot himself at a residence in rural Anza on Sunday, according to a sheriff's investigator.

The CHP contacted the Sheriff's Department at 4:17 p.m. Nov. 3 requesting deputies respond to the 58000 block of Red Shank Road, Investigator S.C. Burden of the Hemet Station said in a statement.

"A CHP officer needed assistance with an uncooperative 43-year-old Caucasian male driver," Burden said. "The CHP officer attempted a traffic related enforcement stop on the driver who failed to yield and fled to the Red Shank Road residence."

When the driver arrived at the residence, he closed and locked a wrought iron gate preventing the CHP officer from contacting the driver, Burden said.

"The CHP officer, and later with the assistance of Sheriff’s helicopter, issued numerous verbal commands to the driver to walk out to the locked gate and speak with the CHP officer," Burden said.

The driver refused to follow the commands and was last seen by CHP officers and deputies walking between the residence and the front porch, Burden said.

"A short time later, deputies and CHP officers entered the residence and found the driver unresponsive with an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound," Burden said. "On scene deputies assumed control of the scene and began a death investigation with the assistance of the California Highway Patrol."

The location on Red Shank Road is about 30 miles southwest of Palm Desert.

Anyone with more info was urged to call Burden at the Hemet Station, (951) 791-3419.


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