Andrew Nunez was 6-year vet in SB County; off-duty officer stops fleeing suspect with car.

By SIERRA VAN DER BRUG, MERCEDES CANNON-TRAN, AND JORDAN B. DARLING | STAFF WRITERS

A San Bernardino County sheriff's deputy was shot to death in Rancho Cucamonga on Monday afternoon, while the suspect raced away on a motorcycle and led law enforcement on a high-speed pursuit along the 210 Freeway. An off-duty deputy eventually intervened with his car, deliberately colliding with the motorcycle and knocking the suspect off of it.

Deputy Andrew Nunez died from "a single gunshot to the head," San Bernardino County Sheriff Shannon Dicus said at a Monday evening news conference at Arrowhead Regional Medical Center in Colton, where the deputy had been taken.

Nunez had worked as a deputy for six years, was a father to a 2-year-old daughter and was expecting another child with his wife.

"He served the community here in Rancho Cucamonga, wonderful father, wonderful deputy sheriff," Dicus said.

Deputies had arrived just after 12:30 p.m. to the 12300 block of Hollyhock Drive, responding to a call about an armed man threatening a woman, the Sheriff's Department said in a statement. It was domestic violence call about a man with a gun, Dicus said at the news conference.

The deputies were shot at, the sheriff's statement said.

The motorcyclist led law enforcement on a pursuit. At one point, it appears, he brandished a handgun, getting it positioned in a hand while not holding the handlebars.

That pursuit ended when the motorcycle crashed near the Campus Avenue exit of the eastbound 210 shortly after 1:30 p.m. The motorcyclist appeared to reach speeds over 150 miles per hour, even approaching 200 mph, Dicus said.

An off-duty narcotics officer used his car to intervene, colliding into the suspect and causing the motorcycle to flip over the hood of the car, sending the suspect to the ground.

"The pursuit came to a conclusion with an off-duty deputy sheriff who put himself on duty and conducted a legal intervention by hitting the suspect on the motorcycle, causing the motorcycle to go down," Dicus said.

Quickly, a half-dozen law enforcement personnel surrounded the suspect.

The suspect was injured and taken into custody and to a hospital, the Sheriffs Department said. The suspect has not been identified yet as the sheriff's department works to positively identify him with forensics and interview him.

The Sheriff's Department is investigating the initial call regarding potential domestic violence and working to identify the relationship between the suspect and the woman at the scene of the call. The initial call, the pursuit and the shooting of the deputy will all be considered in a decision regarding the suspect's charges, said Jason Anderson, the San Bernardino County district attorney.

"Clearly, we're looking at this as a murder on a peace officer," Anderson said of possible charges.

The Sheriff's Employees' Benefit Association "is here to provide support as necessary to everyone affected by this tragedy," said Lolita Harper, the group's executive director and a former detective with the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department. "We support the station, the families and anyone else who needs it. And our hearts are broken."

"I certainly hope that for the family, that we can provide some level of peace by making sure that the suspect is held to answer for this crime and we will continue to move forward as a department," Dicus said.