Sheriff’s bullets from the air end freeway pursuit

Cases of police shooting suspects from helicopters – as happened Friday during a pursuit of wrong-way vehicle on the 215 Freeway in San Bernardino County – are definitely unusual, but they have occurred.

Deputies recognized the driver as a suspect in a home invasion robbery, authorities said, and tried to stop the vehicle early Friday afternoon.

The San Bernardino County Sheriff’s investigation team spent the night trying to determine whether the suspect was shot inside the SUV or after he got out and collapsed on the freeway. The suspect was wanted in connection to a prior home-invasion robbery in Fontana.

A man led authorities on a high-speed pursuit that made its way in opposite lanes of the 215 Freeway in Muscoy before a sheriff’s deputy fired on the vehicle from a helicopter on Friday, September 18, 2015.

A San Bernardino police spokesperson said that firing from a helicopter was rare but officers are trained in case of such an incident.

The unsafe driving prompted a deputy in a helicopter to open fire on the grey Chevrolet Tahoe.

It wasn’t immediately clear whether the man had been wounded by gunfire or died from other injuries, San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Deputy Deon Filer said. The SUV kept rolling, crashing into a blue Dodge Durango with three people inside. The adult male and the child were later released from the hospital; the female was still hospitalized and “recovering”, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Instances of police officers shooting at people from aircraft are few and far between, and are more likely to be seen in the movies.

An investigator looks over the scene of a fatal deputy-involved shooting on the northbound 215 Freeway at Little League Drive in San Bernardino on Friday. Two cars were involved in the crash near Palm Avenue.

Seven such shootings have taken place in the town of Apple Valley, in San Bernardino county, since 2001.

Additionally, the unit has been training from the air since the mid-1980s, she said. The suspect’s vehicle windshield was cracked from bullet holes.