LAKEPORT, Calif. – The district attorney has identified the burglary suspect who led law enforcement on a high speed chase early Friday morning and rammed a police officer's vehicle before he was shot by a sheriff's deputy.
District Attorney Don Anderson said James Ellis Smith of Santa Rosa was the suspect in the incident.
Additional details about Smith, including his age and background, were not immediately available.
Smith remained in the hospital Friday evening following surgery for gunshot wounds he received after a sheriff's deputy shot him, officials reported.
Anderson, whose agency is leading the investigation, said Smith is expected to survive.
A Lake County Sheriff's Office report issued earlier in the day explained that a Lakeport Police officer responded to Hillside Honda, located at 460 S. Main St., at approximately 4:17 a.m. on an alarm call.
At that point, according to the investigation, the officer discovered Smith in the process of burglarizing the business.
Anderson said Smith had cut the power to the building and was attempting to hook a chain or tow cable to the business' doors in an apparent attempt to rip them off when the officer's arrival interrupted him.
Smith fled in a gold pickup, with the Lakeport Police officer in pursuit and joined a short time later by sheriff's deputies, according to Anderson and the sheriff's office report.
The pursuit traveled westbound on Lakeport Boulevard and onto northbound Highway 29, reaching speeds of approximately 100 miles per hour before Smith took the 11th Street exit and turned left onto Scotts Valley Road, where he was driving approximately 70 miles per hour, the sheriff's office said.
When Smith turned onto Riggs Road, “He didn't navigate a corner correctly so he went off the road into a corral,” and got trapped there, said Anderson.
Anderson said Smith put the pickup in reverse and backed up at high speed, hitting the Lakeport Police officer's vehicle.
Smith then pulled forward and the officer got out of his patrol car, Anderson said.
When Smith prepared to back up again – this time with the officer outside of his vehicle and in the pickup's path – an arriving deputy sheriff shot Smith, Anderson said.
Anderson said it isn't yet clear if Smith was shot two or three times.
Smith was struck in the elbow, in the body and also had a grazing wound to the head. Anderson said they're still trying to determine if the bullet that hit Smith's elbow and went through it also was the bullet that struck his body, or if those were two separate shots.
Following the shooting, Smith was flown to an out-of-county hospital, officials said.
The deputy who shot Smith hasn't yet been identified, Anderson said. “That's something we won't do until the end of the investigation.”
The Lakeport Police officer who was involved – and who had minor complaints of pain following the incident, according to Lakeport Police Chief Brad Rasmussen – also hasn't yet been identified.
The District Attorney's Office is leading the investigation under the auspices of the county's critical incident protocol, Anderson said.
“The sheriff's office is assisting and doing the internal affairs portion of the investigation,” he explained.
The California Highway Patrol and Lakeport Police Department also are offering help, he added.
Earlier in the day, Rasmussen said his agency was investigating the burglary at Hillside Honda.
John Jensen contributed to this report.
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