Officers tried to detain the suspect at a convenience store at Peach and Tulare in Southeast Fresno. He got away, but crashed about half a mile away, just past Willow.
Undercover officers tracked the suspect to a convenience store, but when they tried to arrest him, they say he drove his stolen car right at an officer. Two officers opened fire.
Across the street at a construction site, workers literally hit the dirt in fear.
The job was nearly done on this Southeast Fresno home when construction workers got the scare of their lives.
"Today's our last day here and then for that to happen, it's just like 'man oh man!'" said Robert Porteous.
When gunshots rang out at the "Get N Go" convenience store across the street, workers scurried behind a truck to take cover. Before long, they weren't alone.
"A girl came running out of the store screaming. She was on her phone. She came and ran behind the truck. The guys that were working up on the roof, they dove around the back side of the roof because you didn't know where the bullets were going, you just knew they were bullets," said Porteous.
In an unmarked white S.U.V., undercover Fresno Police officers had been monitoring a man they call a notorious car thief. They say he was driving a stolen vehicle when he parked at the convenience store, so they went in to make an arrest.
"The suspect used that vehicle and drove toward at least one officer. That officer as well as a second officer fired their weapons," said Fresno Police Chief Jerry Dyer.
Officers hit the suspect at least twice, but he still drove away. Witnesses say he started the police chase by driving through the fence at a PG&E work site.
Half a mile down the road, officers caught up to him when he crashed into a home.
The suspect was hit twice in the upper body, but police say he'll be okay. His passenger was also injured, but by the accident, not the gunfire.
