San Diego police fatally shoot fleeing suspect

Reporting from San Diego —  A San Diego police officer Wednesday shot and killed a 47-year-old man being sought on felony warrants from Missouri, officials said.

The officer had spotted the man while on patrol in the Pacific Beach neighborhood, according to San Diego police Lt. Paul Rorrison, and refusing the officer’s commands to surrender, the man ran down an alley and toward a fence to escape.

“[A] police dog was deployed and bit the suspect on the foot before the suspect broke free and jumped the fence,” Rorrison said.

After jumping the fence, the man climbed onto a ledge of an apartment building and turned toward the officer “while reaching into his pockets,” Rorrison said. Police had been warned that the man was armed and dangerous, he said.

The officer again told the suspect to “show his hands but the suspect refused to comply and continued to reach into his pockets, appearing to retrieve something,” Rorrison said, and the officer fired three times.

The man, identified as Timothy Gene Smith, was declared dead at the scene. Officials said the incident was caught on the officer’s body camera, which will be reviewed by the district attorney’s office.

The officer was identified as Sgt. Scott Holslag, a 19-year veteran of the police department.

No weapon was found at the scene, Rorrison said.