A driver led San Bernardino police on a high speed chase, driving at speeds in excess of 100 mph, until he was shot from a sheriff's helicopter as he sped the wrong-way down the California interstate.
Nicholas Alan Johnson, of Fontana, was fleeing down the I-215 Freeway in the wrong direction, when the sheriff's office was given the go ahead. The Chevy SUV Johnson was driving was hit several times; Johnson came to a stop, bailed and ran, collapsing on the freeway, according to NBC Los Angeles.
Johnson was shot before exiting the SUV, according to a news release by the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department.
Friday's chase started east of Los Angeles in Devore, when deputies tried to pull over a man they believed to have been involved in a home invasion the day before, according to the New York Times. Instead, the Chevy Tahoe fled, driving excessively through the streets, just missing pedestrians, running through stop signs and stop lights, before entering the I-215 Freeway in the wrong direction.
"We actually train, the pilots train, to shoot from helicopters," San Bernardino County Sheriff's Deputy Deon Filer said.
This isn't the first sheriff's department shooting from a helicopter either, although the last one was in 2001. There have been 7 since the 1980s.
"It's a public-safety issue," Deputy Olivia Bozek said, according to the Huffington Post. "Once he starts going the wrong way, obviously he doesn't care about passengers or pedestrians or other cars that are around."
