Three separate investigations follow San Mateo officer-involved shooting

Two people were shot and injured Saturday night by a San Mateo police officer who had been involved in a chase of the victims’ vehicle that officers believed had been stolen, San Mateo police said.

San Mateo police said officers were patrolling the parking lot of the Hillsdale Shopping Center off of El Camino Real shortly after 5 p.m. Saturday when they spotted a vehicle they believed was stolen. Police said the suspect vehicle, a Chevrolet, left the shopping center, and that officers then tried to pull the Chevy over. Instead, the Chevy’s occupants fled, leading officers on a pursuit and apparently throwing credit cards out the window along the way.

After striking another car in the 400 block of East Hillsdale Boulevard, the Chevy turned onto East Hillsdale Court, which ends in a cul-de-sac. Officers closely followed and planned for a traffic stop at the cul-de-sac, police said, and got out of their vehicle to approach the suspect vehicle. But the suspects then drove their car toward the officers; one of the officers fired at the Chevy, injuring its two occupants. Paramedics were called, and the two suspects were taken to a nearby hospital for treatment, police said.

Police said there will be three concurrent, separate investigations of this shooting. One will focus on the original crime, conducted by the San Mateo Police Department. Another, focusing on the use of force, will be led by the San Mateo County District Attorney’s Office. The third, police said, will be conducted by the San Mateo Police Department to determine whether the officer who fired his weapon acted within department policy.