The man suspected of shooting Officer Wilson, 30-year-old Holim Lee, was found dead with a self-inflicted single gunshot to his head after a shootout with police: Fugitive in police shootout committed suicide.
The craziest part is that Lee previously served five years in the U.S. Coast Guard, and was once honored by the city of San Diego for his heroism, before his life fell to the grip of meth addiction: Officer Shooting Suspect Once Honored as a Hero. It's damn tragic, all around.
County probation officers and federal marshal’s deputies went to an apartment on South Meadowbrook Drive at Paradise Valley Road about 10:45 p.m. Wednesday to check on the tenant, Alex Charfauros, 26, a probationer.
They knew Lee, a fugitive, was staying there and they wanted to arrest him on a warrant for assault with a deadly weapon, authorities said.
When the officers knocked on the door, a man opened it, then slammed it in their faces, San Diego police said. They forced their way inside, saw the man run into a back bedroom, and found Charfauros in another bedroom.
Charfauros was arrested without incident and taken out of the apartment, police said.
The county and federal officers asked San Diego police to help get the other people out of the apartment. When police, including Wilson, went inside and started to kick down the bedroom door, they came under fire.
Wilson was severely wounded. Three officers returned fire and retreated. Some carried Wilson to safety, but two were trapped in the apartment until they climbed out a window and down a firetruck ladder.
SWAT officers spent about seven hours trying to get the apartment occupants out. A man and woman came out about 4 a.m. When SWAT officers went inside about 6:45 a.m., they found the bodies of Lee and Xayasene in the bedroom next to several guns.