By Danny Valentine and Ileana Morales, Times Staff Writers
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
CLEARWATER — A burglary suspect was shot and three others injured early Tuesday after attempting to ram a police car with a stolen pickup truck, police said.
The shooting happened when police tried to stop the suspects as they were leaving Chateau Wood Drive with at least one stolen motorbike in the pickup shortly after 4 a.m., police said.
The suspect who was shot is expected to live, said Clearwater police spokeswoman Elizabeth Watts. Three other suspects were injured but not from the shooting. All three were arrested.
No police officers were injured.
One officer was involved in the shooting. Watts said the unidentified officer was placed on paid administrative leave, standard procedure after a shooting.
Police said some of the unidentified suspects may be juveniles.
The stolen white Dodge pickup truck wound up over a drainage ditch at a Shell gas station at Nursery and Belcher roads (map below). The driver's side window had at least three bullet holes and the back window was partially shattered.
Several motorbikes have recently been stolen in the neighborhood, said Darrell Hagen, a neighbor who stopped by the crime scene early Tuesday.
Hagen, 37, said three of his motorbikes were stolen last week from a trailer next to his house, about four miles west of Tuesday's crime scene.
He said one of his neighbors had four motorbikes stolen a month ago, and it happened to someone else within a few blocks of his home.
"They've been hitting us hard," Hagen said.