STOCKTON, Calif. -- Two Stockton police officers were seriously injured in a traffic collision while responding to assist in the arrest of a shooting suspect early Wednesday morning on El Dorado Street just south of March Lane, police reported.
Due to the ongoing investigation, both northbound and southbound lanes of El Dorado between March Lane and Jamestown Street have been closed and are expected to remain closed until midafternoon today.
The injured officers, whose names were not released, had to be extracted from their patrol unit by Stockton firefighters after their vehicle left the roadway, traveled into the center median of El Dorado near Jamestown and then struck a tree, according to a Police Department statement.
Both officers were transported to an area hospital. One officer required surgery and was reported out of surgery before noon today. The other was still being treated for undisclosed injuries, according to police spokesman Officer Joe Silva.
The officers were responding to an incident that began at 1:58 a.m. today when a man and woman, driving southbound on West Lane near March Lane, were cut off by another vehicle. The male driver of that vehicle then confronted the couple and shot at their vehicle, hitting it with an undisclosed number of rounds, according to a report.
When the incident was reported, other officers locate?d? the suspected shooter's vehicle and were initiating the traffic stop on El Dorado when the accident occurred.
Responding officers arrest?ed Jimmie Lee Turner, 32, the man suspected of the March Lane shooting, on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon and weapons charges, police reported. They also located a discarded firearm.
Copyright 2014 - The Record, Stockton, Calif.
McClatchy-Tribune News Service
