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Video: Bullets fly during live report in downtown San Diego

News footage captured a shootout between a Harbor police officer and a suspect

Alex Riggins
The San Diego Union-Tribune

SAN DIEGO — A driver and a police officer exchanged gunfire Monday night during a traffic stop outside the San Diego Convention Center, but neither was injured in the shootout, authorities said.

It happened a little after 7 p.m. near Fifth Avenue and Harbor Drive, according to Port of San Diego Harbor Police Department spokesman Sgt. Timothy De La Peña.

A Harbor police officer was attempting to stop the driver — it was not immediately clear what the stop was for — when the man “opened fire on the officer,” De La Peña said.

The officer returned fire, according to the sergeant. Neither the gunman nor the officer was struck by the gunfire.

Police took the driver into custody, De La Peña said.

Footage from FOX5 showed officers handcuffing a man and walking with him. A reporter for the television station said he was in the area filming a news segment when shots rang out. The station reported that after the shootout, the police officer took cover behind a vehicle until other officers arrived to help take the man into custody.

In a video posted to Twitter by reporter Jeff McAdam, at least five shots can be heard ringing out in the initial burst of gunfire. Seconds later, three more shots are heard. After a few more seconds, there is another burst of several shots, though it’s difficult to determine how many.

De La Peña said police were investigating whether any bystanders were injured by stray gunfire. Police radio traffic indicated a person may have been hit by a bullet but uninjured, possibly because it struck something in the person’s pocket.

This story originally appeared in San Diego Union-Tribune.

(c)2021 The San Diego Union-Tribune

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