Police standoff on Interstate 80 ends after suspect shoots himself
(Graphic by Solano NewsNet)
A police standoff that closed all lanes of Interstate 80 in Fairfield has come to an end after the suspect involved in the incident shot himself Friday evening.
The situation started several counties over when police received a report of a vehicle shooting near the town of Windsor. The victim in that case was able to get a license plate of the suspect’s vehicle, and California Highway Patrol officers tracked it down to Rohnert Park.
From there, a pursuit began that eventually ended with a standoff along the eastbound lanes of Interstate 80 near the Interstate 680 interchange. For two hours, police tried to bring the situation to a close, at one point using two armored vehicles to lock the suspect’s sedan into place.
Around 6 p.m., SWAT officers from the Fairfield Police Department began deploying gas canisters into the vehicle. A short time later, the suspect put on a gas mask, and officers were able to spot a silver revolver in his hands.
The standoff came to an end around 6:25 p.m. when the suspect fired a single gunshot to the head as police were advancing on the vehicle. Officers pulled the suspect’s body from the sedan and began performing CPR on his body. The suspect was loaded into an ambulance and transported to a local hospital in critical condition.
CHP officers kept all lanes of eastbound Interstate 80 closed while the ambulance transported the suspect’s body away from the scene. All lanes of Interstate 80 are still shut down, and police are expected to keep some eastbound lanes closed while their investigation continues.
Westbound lanes of Interstate 80 are expected to re-open within the hour.