After a Chino police motorcycle officer encountered a Rialto resident recklessly operating a vehicle in the extreme southern end of Chino on Wednesday and was knocked from his bike, the officer’s department colleagues obtained a warrant from a judge to confront the motorist at a residence he had retreated to some 29 miles away from the incident. Upon serving that warrant, the officers gunned the man down when, according to the Chino Police Department, he used a gun in his possession to fire upon them.
“On September 6, 2023, at approximately 9:55 a.m., a Chino police motor officer attempted to stop a vehicle for a traffic violation in the 15800 block of El Prado Road,” according to Chino Police Department Spokeswoman Vivian Castro. “The offender failed to yield, and then deliberately caused a collision with the motor officer. The offender then sped away on El Prado Road. The officer was transported via ambulance to a regional hospital, where he was treated for moderate injuries and then released.”
According to Castro, “Chino detectives followed numerous leads and, with the assistance of the Fontana Police Department, were able to track the suspect to a residence in Rialto. At approximately 5:30 p.m., the Chino Police Department SWAT team served a search warrant. During the service of the search warrant, the suspect attempted to flee the location and was confronted by officers. The suspect shot at officers, and two officers returned fire. The suspect was shot and succumbed to his injuries at the scene. No officers were injured during the confrontation.”
According to information assembled by the Sentinel, the now-deceased man was driving in front of the motorcycle officer, whose effort to effectuate the stop commenced at 9:56 p.m. The motorist stopped abruptly by braking hard, and the motorcycle rear-ended the car.
Though the motorist drove off, the officer’s body camera captured the license plate number of the car, which allowed the department to determine the likely identity of the motorist, tentatively identified as John Angel of Alta Loma. Further investigation involved coordinating with other agencies to trace the vehicle’s progression using license plate readers and coordinating the retrieval of information of geo-positioning data from Angel’s cell phone provider.
Members of the SWAT team, clad in protective gear including bulletproof vests and helmets, entered the a residence in the 3200 block of Amberwood in Rialto, where Angel was surmised to be holed up. When the officers came into the home, Angel fled into the backyard, and had made it to the rear fence. It was then, according to the Chino Police Department, that the man opened fire with a handgun.
Just in advance of the shooting, the Amberwood neighborhood was “locked down” and an effort to evacuate residents from houses proximate to the suspect’s home were made.
A resident of Amberwood, Michael Gonzales, said that “About 20 armed officers with assault rifles in full riot gear” descended upon the home in question around 5:30 p.m.
Another nearby resident, Eric Strausborger, said SWAT team members could be heard ordering the suspect to get down. This was followed, Strausborger said, by at least five audible shots. Members of the household could also be heard telling the officers that they were not who the police were seeking. Residents of the home crawled from the home out the front door after the shooting, according to Strausborger.
Nearby residents said they did not believe Angel was a resident of the home where the shooting took place.