Suspect dies of gun wound after car chase

GUSTINE -- A suspect in a Merced shooting might have accidentally shot himself as the California Highway Patrol chased him Saturday morning, a Merced County sheriff's spokesman said.

CHP officers found the Modesto man in the front seat with a gunshot wound to the head after a red Dodge Charger crashed into a ditch near Highway 33 several miles south of Gustine, Deputy Ed Katen said.

Richard Allen Medeiros II, 31, who was pronounced dead at the scene, was wanted by Merced police on suspicion of aggravated assault with a handgun.

Events leading to the crash likely began about 5:20 a.m. Saturday, when Merced police responded to a report of an assault with a gun at a home in the 4000 block of Sisteron Court in a neighborhood north of West Yosemite Avenue and just east of Highway 59.

A man at the home had been shot in the arm and his wife took him to the Mercy Medical Center Merced for treatment, said Merced police Lt. Bimley West. The injury was not life-threatening and he was released from the hospital Saturday.

The suspect in the shooting, later identified as Medeiros, fled in a green or blue 2001 Dodge pickup before police arrived, West said.

Merced police detectives were investigating the assault but had not determined a motive for the shooting, West said. Police provided the suspect's information and asked the Merced County Sheriff's Department and CHP to be on the lookout for the pickup.

At 8:16 a.m. Saturday, a CHP officer stopped the Charger for a traffic violation in Delhi, Katen said.

The CHP officer didn't know the Charger's driver, later identified as Medeiros, was the suspect in the Merced shooting, Katen said.

Also, Medeiros was driving a car and not the pickup. Katen said Medeiros had family in Delhi.

As the officer approached the car, Medeiros sped away and the chase began, Katen said.

The officer pursued the car through western Merced County until the chase ended about 8:45 a.m. on Cottonwood Road, just east of Highway 33.

Other CHP officers had placed a spike strip across Cottonwood. According to the CHP officers, Medeiros swerved off the road, pulled the car back onto the road, then veered sharply left off the road a second time before the Charger went into the ditch.

Katen said investigators were not sure if the spike strip caused Medeiros to lose control. He said a CHP officer noticed one of the car's wheels was blown out and was riding on the rim when Medeiros turned onto Cottonwood.

Katen said the officers noticed Medeiros was bleeding from a single gunshot wound to the head as they approached the car. He said the officers performed CPR on Medeiros, but he was pronounced dead at the scene.

The CHP officers did not fire their guns during the chase, Katen said.

Authorities closed Cottonwood Road in both directions for a few hours as investigators gathered evidence and cleared the crash site, he said. By 3 p.m., authorities had pulled the car from the ditch and reopened the road.

Bee staff writer Ken Carlson contributed to this report.

Bee staff writer Rosalio Ahumada can be reached at rahumada@modbee.com or 578-2394.

This story was originally published August 10, 2008 at 3:03 AM with the headline "Suspect dies of gun wound after car chase."