A man’s lifeless body was dragged out of a car by police after a nearly four-hour standoff on the 91 Freeway in Orange County came to a tense ending on Friday.
Corporal Tobias Kouroubacalis with the Corona Police Department told KTLA that the man was an armed stalking suspect and officers made contact with him in the area of McKinley Street and Griffin way in Corona around 8 a.m. The man evaded police in a blue sedan and entered the 91 Freeway before coming to a stop for unknown reasons near Lakeview Avenue.
The suspect, still armed, then engaged in a standoff with officers from Corona, the California Highway Patrol and deputies from the Riverside County Sheriff’s Office at about 8:20 a.m.
Authorities were then forced to close all lanes on both sides of the 91 Freeway. Caltrans District 12 said on X, formerly Twitter, that the westbound side was shutdown at Imperial Highway. The eastbound lanes were closed at Lakeview Avenue.
The chaos caused massive traffic jams as traffic was backed up for miles. Authorities were allowing some cars to turn around on the freeway and drive on the wrong side of the road to the nearest exit.
Two nearby schools, Crescent Elementary and Crescent Primary, were locked down as a precaution.
According to Kouroubacalis, police were communicating with the man via phone call during the standoff. He said the department was in “no hurry to make physical contact” with the man and officers would only move in on him if there was an active threat.
At about 12 p.m., KTLA’s Chip Yost reported that he heard a “pop” from nearby, but he wasn’t sure exactly what the sound was. Shortly after, KTLA’s Mike Case from aboard Sky5 reported that he saw the man “slumped” in the car, and saw blood.
Shortly after 12 p.m., authorities pulled the man, who appeared to be dead, out of the car. His cause of death was not immediately clear.
The eastbound lanes of the 91 Freeway were reopened at 12:45 p.m., Caltrans said. The westbound lanes remained closed and traffic was being diverted onto Imperial Highway.
There was no estimated time given for the reopening of the westbound 91 Freeway.
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