Authorities Thursday publicly identified a firearm-assault suspect who was fatally shot by police this week following a road chase from San Ysidro to a neighborhood near Balboa Park.
Two members of a San Diego Police Department SWAT team opened fire on Enrique Cortez Jr., 37, shortly before 4 p.m. Monday, according to the San Diego County Sheriff's Office, which investigates uses of lethal force on the part of SDPD personnel under terms of a countywide agreement designed to prevent conflicts of interest.
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SIGN UP The events that led to the deadly law enforcement gunfire began about a half-hour earlier, when a 911 caller reported seeing a man, later identified as Cortez, with a rifle partially concealed in his jacket near the intersection of Blanche Street and Sanger Place, just north of the U.S.-Mexico border, sheriff's Lt. Juan Marquez said.
A short time later, the suspect allegedly put the weapon into a parked white Ford F-150 pickup truck and retrieved a handgun. He then got into an argument with a bicyclist, who soon rode off, at which point Cortez allegedly fired off a round into the ground in the direction of the fleeing victim, causing no injuries.
When SDPD officers arrived minutes later and contacted the suspect, he climbed into the truck and drove off, Marquez said.
With police giving chase in squad cars and aboard a patrol helicopter, the suspect entered Interstate 5 and fled to the north, driving erratically at times and eventually merging onto state Route 15 near downtown San Diego.
Cortez soon exited the freeway and drove over various city streets before turning onto the 800 block of 26th Street, just north of SR-94 and south of E Street in Golden Hill. There, the truck struck a police vehicle, leaving the service-dog-handler officer behind the wheel with minor injuries from an inflating airbag, the sheriff's lieutenant said.
Following the collision, the pickup continued for a short distance and crashed to a halt against a pergola in front of a home, and a patrolman took the opportunity to stop his cruiser behind the pickup in an attempt to box in the suspect.
At that point, Cortez revved the engine of the Ford, and SDPD Sgts. Richard Curtis and Bryan Shields opened fire on him, Marquez said.
After police pulled the mortally wounded suspect from the truck, paramedics tried in vain to revive him before pronouncing him dead.
Inside the pickup, investigators found a rifle and a handgun, Marquez said.
Curtis has been with the San Diego Police Department for 13 years. Shields has served with the agency for nine.
