Riverside Officer Shot After Traffic Stop; Gunman Later Found Dead

RIVERSIDE —  A Riverside police officer was critically wounded Saturday night when a motorist shot him during a traffic stop, police said.

The unidentified officer and his partner had stopped a van just southeast of Riverside city limits at 8:23 p.m., said Sgt. Bob Hansen.

As the officers walked up to the van, Hansen said, the driver opened fire, wounding one of them. One of the officers shot at the motorist, who fled.

After a bulletin went out via police radio, a UC Riverside campus police officer spotted the suspect’s van. Witnesses said they saw the suspect running into a residential neighborhood nearby, Hansen said.

The suspect then tried to break into a house, Hansen said. Failing that, the man went to a second house and broke in. Hansen said it was “apparently a violent entry.”

The occupants called police after hearing a gunshot. Police found the suspect dead inside, but have not released his identity. There were also reports that the dead man was a suspect in an earlier shooting, in which a Moreno Valley law enforcement official was wounded.

Hansen said he did not know whether the suspect shot himself or whether someone in the house shot him.

The officer was hospitalized in serious to critical condition, Hansen said.