Driver Flees From Police, Then Reportedly Commits Suicide

The Riverside County Sheriff’s Department is investigating an apparent suicide in Anza involving a man who allegedly fled from police before fatally shooting himself. 

The investigation began around 4:17 p.m. Sunday when the sheriff’s department received a call from the California Highway Patrol requesting deputies respond to the 58000 block of Red Shank Road in the unincorporated community of Anza located east of Temecula.  

“A CHP officer needed assistance with an uncooperative 43-year-old Caucasian male driver,” according to a report issued today by sheriff’s lead investigator S.C. Burden.

The man allegedly failed to pull over when a CHP officer attempted a traffic-related enforcement stop. The man fled to a residence on Red Shank Road, then closed and locked a wrought iron gate behind him, preventing the CHP officer from entering, according to the investigator’s report.

“The CHP officer, and later with the assistance of [a] sheriff’s helicopter, issued numerous verbal commands to the driver to walk out to the locked gate and speak with the CHP officer. The driver refused to follow these commands and was last seen by CHP officers and deputies walking between the residence and the front porch,” according to Burden’s report.

A short time later, deputies and CHP officers made their way onto the property and found the driver unresponsive with an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, the report continued.

Burden did not report any shots fired by deputies or the CHP, nor did he indicate where the body was found on the property. 

Currently, a death investigation is underway by the sheriff’s department with the assistance of the California Highway Patrol.

The man’s identity has not yet been released by the Riverside County Coroner’s Office.

Anyone with information on this case is encouraged to call Investigator Burden at the Hemet Sheriff’s Station by calling (951) 791-3419.