Man shot to death as police dispatcher listens on the line
A robbery victim who followed his assailant down a dead-end street was shot and killed as he telephoned a dispatcher to report the crime, according to the San Bernardino Police Department.
Christian Morales, 19, had just been robbed at Lytle Creek Park around 8:30 p.m. Monday when he decided to get into his car and follow his attacker’s vehicle, according to Lt. Rich Lawhead.
Morales was on the phone with police and reporting the crime when he followed the suspect’s car into the 1300 block of Poplar Street – a dead end, Lawhead said. It was there that the attacker stepped from his vehicle, confronted Morales and fatally shot him.
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Morales was “on the phone with dispatch when the shooting occurred,” Lawhead said.
“I don’t think it was a chase. He may have thought he was being slick,” Lawhead said of Morales. “We love the public helping us but we definitely don’t want them putting themselves in any kind of danger.”
Lawhead said Morales gave dispatchers “some pretty good information” on the shooter, but declined to elaborate.
No description of the attacker or a license plate number for the vehicle was available. It was not clear if Morales knew the robber had a gun when he followed him, Lawhead said.
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