Police Kill Suspect in Carjacking

Police said Wednesday that they struggled to find nonlethal ways to subdue a suspected carjacker who was ultimately gunned down and killed when he rushed officers while brandishing a knife.

Pepper spray, shotgun-launched beanbag rounds, a snarling police dog and darts that provide an electric jolt all failed to coax the man out of the van that he allegedly stole at knife-point before leading Huntington Beach police on a high-speed chase that ended when he crashed the vehicle in Santa Ana.

“This was an unusual one because there was so much effort to use less-lethal equipment to subdue him,” Huntington Beach Police Lt. John Arnold said. “It was his actions that forced the officers to use the deadly force.”

Police didn’t release the man’s name Wednesday, pending notification of relatives.

The man, about 25 years old, stole a Ford Aerostar minivan belonging to a taxi company on Brookhurst Street in Fountain Valley shortly before 10 p.m. Tuesday, Arnold said.

The cab driver, Ghulam Askarzadeh, 33, said the suspect had called for a ride about 6 p.m. At first, there wasn’t anything suspicious about the man, who ordered Askarzadeh to drive him to several places.

“He said, ‘Take me to this place and take me to another place,’ ” Askarzadeh said Wednesday. “I don’t know what his plan was, but as it got darker he got more nervous.”

At several points during the ride, the man lit a pipe and smoked it in the back seat. Askarzadeh said he repeatedly told the man that smoking was not allowed.

“He kept telling me, ‘This is my medicine. Please don’t disturb me,’ ” said Askarzadeh, who said he couldn’t be certain what the man was smoking, although he suspects it may have been drugs.

Askarzadeh said that at one point he joked with the man, telling him: “That’s strange medicine.”

When the cab meter reached $187, Askarzadeh told the man it was time to end the trip. The man responded: “Please don’t make me hurt you,” then pulled out a knife. Askarzadeh said the man ordered him out of the vehicle, then drove away.

A Huntington Beach police officer spotted the van about 10:40 p.m. at Atlanta Avenue and Brookhurst Street. When the driver refused the officer’s orders to stop, a high-speed chase ensued. Huntington Beach police were led to Santa Ana, where the man lost control of the van and hit a center divider at Harbor Boulevard and McFadden Avenue.

Officers ordered the man out of the van, but he refused, Arnold said. In an attempt to coax the man out, officers said they fired successive rounds of pepper spray, Taser darts--electronic darts connected to wires that provide a shock--and beanbag rounds that deliver a nonlethal blow.

At one point, a police dog was released into the van, and the suspect tried to stab the canine, police said. When the dog entered the van again on the driver’s side shortly after 11 p.m., the man jumped out of the passenger’s side and charged an officer, who responded with gunfire, police said.

The man was taken to Western Medical Center-Santa Ana, where he died at 2:26 a.m., Arnold said.

Authorities said Wednesday that toxicology tests would determine whether he was under the influence of drugs or alcohol.

Huntington Beach Officer Mike Kelly said the officer who opened fire had little choice: “We considered him a threat. He was uncooperative and agitated.”