A man being chased by Gang Suppression Unit detectives was shot and killed in an officer-involved shooting Sunday afternoon, according to the Santa Ana Police Department.
The detectives were patrolling the 400 block of South Birch Street just after 4:30 p.m. when they confronted a man getting out of a vehicle in an alley, says Cpl. Anthony Bertagna, the department’s spokesman.
This led to the foot chase where, after the man ran out onto Birch Street, detectives ordered him to stop before the shooting happened that resulted in the suspect being hit with gunfire, Bertagna says.
Officers who rendered aid at the scene were soon joined by Orange County Fire Authority paramedics, who pronounced the man dead at 4:42 p.m.
As is customary, the Orange County District Attorney’s office is investigating the officer-involved shooting, as is the Santa Ana Police Homicide Unit. Call 714.245.8390 with tips that can help investigators.
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.