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A kidnapping and assault suspect died in a shootout with East Bay officers Thursday evening after he allegedly abducted a woman and brutally beat her, dumping her in a remote part of Contra Costa County before leading police on a chase from Oakland to Richmond, where he was killed, authorities said.
Police have not released the identity of the man or the woman involved in a shocking chain of events that began with a kidnapping in Solano County, and ended when officers from Oakland and Richmond opened fire on his car after he allegedly began shooting at them.
Police have not ruled out the possibility that the suspect suffered a self-inflicted gunshot wound, but multiple eyewitnesses told reporters that several officers opened fire on his vehicle and that dozens of shots were fired. Multiple Oakland officers, and one officer from Richmond, fired their duty weapons, police said.
In the police chase that preceded the shooting, two Oakland officers were injured when the man allegedly rammed their vehicle, police said. One suffered a broken leg, and both are expected to fully recover.
It all started Thursday afternoon, when the woman was reported kidnapped out of Solano County. About 6:50 p.m., authorities received reports of suspicious circumstances on a secluded part of Pinehurst Road in unincorporated Contra Costa County. Pinehurst runs between Skyline Boulevard in Oakland and Moraga.
A caller reported that a man walking or bicycling down Pinehurst Road with a human body wrapped in a rug or blanket and slung over his shoulder.
Oakland firefighters and officers with Moraga police and the Contra Costa County Sheriff’s Office responded, but when they arrived the man was gone. They located the woman lying in bushes off a turnout of the road, less than a mile south of Skyline Boulevard.. She was unconscious and barely alive. An ambulance crew rushed her to the hospital, where she was placed on life support. She was reported to be in critical condition early Friday morning.
Meanwhile, officers were on the lookout for the man. Oakland and Moraga police located him driving a 1999 white Chevrolet cargo van with temporary plates and a pursuit began. The man drove on city streets and eventually onto westbound Interstate 580 into Richmond from the Highway 13/24 junction. Police sought assistance from California Highway Patrol officers, including a law-enforcement agency helicopter.
With the helicopter’s help, CHP officers were able to follow the vehicle into Richmond, where it entered city streets, blowing through several red lights, before coming to a stop near South 37th Street and Stege Avenue where the man was eventually shot sometime after 7:30 p.m..
Staff writer Harry Harris contributed to this report.