GRIDLEY, CA (MPG) - The morning of June 4^th, the peaceful air of our community was shattered by gunshots, police sirens and the sounds of squealing wheels from a fleeing vehicle. By 9:00 a.m., Gridley would be crawling with law enforcement officers from almost every area Police Department, including Chico, Paradise, and Oroville, officers from Butte County Sheriff’s Department, Butte County Probation, Fish and Game, the District Attorney and his office, California Highway Patrol and the Department of Justice Crime Lab out of Redding.

Residents taking their kids to school or headed to work would find Sycamore Street near SavMor Foods cordoned off by yellow crime scene tape and police vehicles guarding the perimeter as the investigation into an officer-initiated shooting got under way.

The events unfolded around 4:45 a.m. on Tuesday morning. A GBPD press release reports that Officers with the GBPD attempted a traffic stop on Hwy 99, just south of Ford Avenue. The suspect vehicle, a black Honda sedan, failed to yield and fled the scene. During the resulting pursuit of the vehicle, the vehicle was involved in a collision near the 500 block of Sycamore Street. According to Butte County District Attorney Mike Ramsey, officers exited their patrol car and began to approach the driver. At that time the driver began to drive in reverse and officers, fearing for their lives, opened fire.

The vehicle fled the scene and was later located unoccupied at 271 Ohio Street. Authorities had set up a perimeter, canvasing the neighborhood in search of the suspect. The suspect, allegedly a Hispanic male in his twenties, was pulled from inside a home at 283 Ohio Street where he had been hiding. He suffered a single gunshot wound to the shoulder and has been transported to Enloe Hospital in Chico for treatment.

According to the resident at 271 Ohio Street, witness Adam Peterson, he was awakened shortly after 4:45 a.m. by a flash of headlights across his bedroom window and a strange repeating thumping noise. He had heard sirens in the area but had no idea that shots had been fired just blocks away. His dog was growling, so he got up to investigate. If he had looked outside his sleeping children’s window, he would have seen the abandoned vehicle in his front yard – lights on and windshield wipers swaying and making that thumping sound. Instead, his search not turning up anything unusual, he attempted to go back to sleep. A short time later, Law Enforcement would discover the car and Peterson would recount the morning’s events. “There were no skid marks or anything going up to it, so it looks like they pulled in real quietly and the next thing I know I have voices outside my bedroom window and there was about 10 Sheriff Officers.” Peterson puts it at around 30 minutes from the time he first heard the thumping to when officers arrived at his residence. He witnessed the suspect being carried out of the house at 283 Ohio Street on a stretcher, catching a glimpse of a bloody shoulder from the gunshot wound.

Peterson also alluded to a second suspect involved, a woman. He said, “they said there was a woman in the car with him, but I never saw her. I heard they detained her.”

In response to the morning’s events he said, “It’s “Crazy! My truck's all taped off, my yard's all taped off. Never had my front yard be a crime scene before!”

As is standard protocol in the case of an Officer Involved Shooting, the District Attorney’s Office is investigating the events surrounding the incident. Butte County DA Dave Ramsey and his department were observed at both active crime scene locations, leaving just before forensic officers from the DOJ Crime Lab Redding entered the home at 283 Ohio St.

At this time Gridley-Biggs Police Department has not been able to comment on incident. The GBPD is asking that anyone who may have witnessed this shooting to please contact the department. The investigation is ongoing and no further information is available at this time.