A stretch of South Coast Highway was closed for hours Thursday night after a police pursuit ended in a shooting that wounded a 36-year-old man.
Around 6:19 p.m, a Laguna Beach officer attempted to stop a vehicle at Smithcliffs and South Coast Highway. The driver did not stop and struck two vehicles as he fled into Newport Beach, police said.
The driver turned the car around and headed south into Laguna Beach. An officer used a maneuver to disable the fleeing vehicle near Nyes Place. Police shot the driver as he was exiting the vehicle, Laguna Beach police chief Robert Thompson said in a press release.
It is not clear what prompted police to open fire. Authorities did not indicate whether the driver was armed.
Tobiah Paul Steinmetz of Jupiter, Florida was taken to a local hospital for treatment. The man remains in critical but stable condition as of Friday morning. The portion of South Coast Highway that was closed reopened about 2 a.m. Friday.
No officers or bystanders were injured, including the drivers of the two vehicles that were struck at the beginning of the pursuit, police said.
The Orange County District Attorney’s Office will conduct an investigation of the shooting. Laguna Beach police are also conducting an administrative probe of the incident.
