Authorities have publicly identified the car-theft suspect who was wounded last week when a San Diego Police Department officer opened fire on him when he appeared to reach for what looked like a pistol following a road chase that ended in a crash near Sweetwater Lane County Park.
Edwaun Walter Thames, 39, survived the gunshots and has been released from medical care and booked on suspicion of several felony charges, according to the San Diego County Sheriff's Office, which investigates shootings involving personnel with the SDPD under terms of a regional agreement designed to prevent actual or perceived conflicts of interest.
The pursuit from the Lincoln Park district of San Diego to the La Presa community near Spring Valley began shortly after 12:45 p.m. Thursday, when patrol personnel tried to pull over the suspect in the vicinity of Euclid and Imperial avenues, sheriff's Lt. Juan Marquez said.
Thames allegedly refused to yield and fled to the east, at one point running over a tire-flattening spike strip police laid in his path and eventually leading officers to a neighborhood in an unincorporated area north of Sweetwater Reservoir and just east of state Route 125.
There, the fleeing suspect lost control of the stolen car, sending it crashing off the roadway at Gillespie Drive and Jamacha Road at about 1:30 p.m., SDPD Officer Colin Steinbroner said. The vehicle struck a light pole, which then fell onto an SDPD cruiser, the spokesman said.
At that point, officers had the suspect get out of the car and turn his back to them with his hands in the air, and then ordered him to lie down face first in the street.