ESCONDIDO: One of two pit bulls that attacked a woman's dog and couldn't be subdued was shot and killed Tuesday by an Escondido police officer.
The incident happened near West 10th Avenue and South Maple Street about 11:15 a.m.
Neighbors saw the dog being attacked and initially fended off the pit bulls with shovels, Escondido Lt. David Mankin said.
An animal control officer tried to catch the pit bulls, but the dogs approached the officer aggressively, said Abigail Rowland, development director of the Escondido Humane Society.
When a police officer arrived, the pit bulls began circling, Mankin said. The animal control officer used pepper spray, but it was ineffective. When one of the dogs ran toward the police officer, Mankin said, the officer shot it twice.
The dog that was attacked was expected to survive, Rowland said.
Authorities captured the second pit bull. The owner of the dogs, who was not present, could face charges, Rowland said. –M.R.
Two suspected smugglers
arrested after pursuit
SAN MARCOS: Two people suspected of illegal immigrant smuggling were arrested yesterday after allegedly ramming a Border Patrol agent's vehicle, authorities said.
No one was injured. A man and a woman were taken into custody and a second woman got away, sheriff's officials said.
A Border Patrol agent was on northbound Interstate 15 following a sport utility vehicle that had eluded agents earlier in an East County pursuit, sheriff's and federal authorities said.
About 2 p.m., the SUV driver exited at Deer Springs Road north of Escondido and turned south. Sheriff's officials said one or more Border Patrol agents tried to pull over the driver, who allegedly rammed an agent's vehicle on Twin Oaks Valley Road at Del Roy Drive. Sheriff's deputies responded to assist. –P.R.
Stolen car found crashed
at bottom of La Jolla cliff
LA JOLLA: A Santee resident woke up yesterday to learn that not only had her car been stolen, but it was at the bottom of a cliff in La Jolla.
The blue Scion was found crashed into rocks on the beach about 200 feet below Camino de la Costa shortly after 7 a.m., San Diego police said.
No one was inside the car. Special equipment was required to remove it. –K.D.
Navy man ID'd as victim
of crash off Interstate 8
SAN DIEGO: The man killed in a one-car crash that sparked a brush fire in East County last week has been identified by family members as Joseph Larson, 19, of Middletown, Ohio.
Larson, who was in the Navy, was driving his Volkswagen west on Interstate 8 at 5 a.m. June 19 when it ran off the highway near Carrizo Gorge Drive, plummeted about 100 feet down an embankment and burst into flames, authorities said.
Larson had left Ohio on June 16 after being on leave from boot camp and was on his way to his first post at North Island Naval Air Station in Coronado, said his aunt, Cherie Bradley, who lives in Poway.
The family believes Larson fell asleep at the wheel as he neared the end of his cross-country drive. –D.B.
Court rules man's refusal
to comply wasn't assault
FEDERAL COURTS: You can't assault a federal officer by simply standing stiffly and disobeying orders, an appeals court ruled this week in tossing out a misdemeanor conviction against a Tijuana man arrested at the San Ysidro border crossing.
Lee Chapman, 54, who lived in Mexico but worked in a San Diego homeless shelter, was accused of cutting in the pedestrian line at the border two years ago, and, when threatened with arrest, stiffened up.
“He never did anything, he just stood there,” said his lawyer, Steven Barth.
Chapman is 6-foot-1 and 210 pounds, and an officer was unable to handcuff him or bring him to the ground after hitting him twice with a metal baton. Chapman was finally brought down after being sprayed in the eyes with pepper spray.
In a bench trial, Chapman, who is black, testified he felt he was treated differently because of his race.
A judge convicted him of misdemeanor “forcibly resisting, opposing, impeding, and interfering with a federal officer.”
A prosecutor told the appeals court that Chapman was charged with a crime because he was “causing quite a scene” at the border crossing.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeal reversed that conviction Monday, finding that Chapman's “nonviolent civil disobedience” wasn't an assault.–O.R.S.
Staff writers Matthew Rodriguez, Pauline Repard, Kristina Davis, Debbi Baker and Onell R. Soto contributed to this report.
