SAN DIEGO — A San Diego police officer was killed and another was critically injured when a speeding vehicle crashed into their patrol car, the police chief said Tuesday. The speeding driver also was killed.
The San Diego Police Department identified the officer as Austin Machitar.
The crash occurred late Monday after a vehicle was spotted traveling at high speed on a boulevard.
An officer tried to make a traffic stop, but the vehicle failed to stop, and a brief pursuit began, Chief Scott Wahl told reporters, noting the information was preliminary.
“Due to a high rate of speed, a supervisor terminated that pursuit,” he said. “Two officers working together in one vehicle were responding to that fleeing suspect, and ultimately the suspect vehicle collided at a high rate of speed into the side of their vehicle.”
Machitar, who was driving the police car, died at the scene, and the other officer was hospitalized in intensive care, where he was “fighting for his life,” the chief said.
"Words cannot convey the loss we all feel in this moment. Please keep their families and friends in your prayers. We thank the community and our fellow law enforcement agencies for all your outpouring of love and support as we grieve this heartbreaking loss of Officer Austin Machitar and as Officer Zachary Martinez still fights to recover from his injuries," police said in a statement on Facebook.
A couple of other cars were involved in the crash, but those drivers had no significant injuries, officials said.
The California Highway Patrol has been asked to investigate independently, with a full reconstruction of exactly what happened, Wahl said.
“There’s a lot of information that’s going to be coming forward, and there’s a lot of questions that we all have,” he said.
The San Diego Union-Tribune reported this month that a city oversight commission that reviewed data from more than 1,000 San Diego police pursuits recommended a dozen changes to policy, including engaging only in pursuits related to violent crimes.
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