Felony Stop

According to transmissions on a police radio scanner, at about 11 p.m. on February 24, San Diego officers working a call on 50th Street and Skyline heard four shots fired. The officers on the call as well as several other units moved into the vicinity of where the firearm had been discharged. Calls started to flood in of shots fired.

An SDPD sergeant who happened to be sitting in his patrol vehicle parked on South 61st Street — 50 to 60 yards south of Skyline — stated that, “Thirty seconds after the other officers reported the shots fired, a gray Nissan Altima came off Alderley Street, ran the stop sign on Alderley onto South 61st, and took off like a rocket.”

The sergeant caught up to the vehicle and proceeded with a felony stop on the 1000 block of Stillwell Avenue. Shortly thereafter, a victim was reportedly found on the 6000 block of Alderley Street: a male in his early 30s, shot in the head. Medics arrived and rushed the victim to Mercy Hospital.

Witnesses stated that prior to the shooting they saw a gray Altima drive around the block at least twice. The Altima pulled over about 50 yards west of a house on Alderley Street. A black male from the car walked up to the group on the sidewalk and shot the victim in the head. The gunman ran back to the Altima and the car fled toward South 61st Street.

Officers searched the vehicle for the firearm but came up negative. Officers searched the area with the help of the helicopter and K-9 units but also came up negative on the search for the firearm.

A female witness was able to do a curbside identification of the driver, but none of the witnesses were able to identify the shooter. All three of the occupants of the Altima were detained for questioning.

At about 12:00 a.m. an update came through that the male victim had been wounded in the hip and leg and not the head as originally reported. The wounds were not believed to be life-threatening.