O.C. man rams squad car, is shot
A man suspected of driving while intoxicated was shot and killed by Newport Beach police Friday after ramming a police car at the end of a three-mile chase, authorities said.
Jason Richard Bissonnette, 38, of Huntington Beach rammed his Mercedes-Benz into a patrol car before officers opened fire, fatally wounding him, police said.
Officers had tried to stop Bissonnette at Jamboree Road and East Coast Highway in Newport Beach about 12:45 a.m., Newport Beach Police Sgt. Evan Sailor said. The pursuit ended four minutes later at a cul-de-sac on Cambridge Circle near Aliso Avenue in Costa Mesa.
It was there, police said, that he rammed a patrol car.
“The officers perceived a deadly threat and they responded with deadly force,” Sailor said.
Kim Garrett, 67, who lives nearby, said the shooting sounded like “a bunch of firecrackers going off.”
The district attorney’s office investigates all police-involved shootings. Costa Mesa police were investigating the incident as an assault by Bissonnette with a deadly weapon, his car.
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