San Diego police officer killed and another critically injured in crash with fleeing car

SAN DIEGO (AP) — A San Diego police officer was killed and another was critically injured when a speeding vehicle crashed into their patrol car, the police chief said Tuesday. The speeding driver also was killed.

The crash occurred late Monday after a vehicle was spotted traveling at high speed on a boulevard.

An officer tried to make a traffic stop, but the vehicle failed to stop, and a brief pursuit began, Chief Scott Wahl told reporters, noting the information was preliminary.

“Due to a high rate of speed, a supervisor terminated that pursuit,” he said. “Two officers working together in one vehicle were responding to that fleeing suspect, and ultimately the suspect vehicle collided at a high rate of speed into the side of their vehicle.”

The officer driving the police car died at the scene, and the other officer was hospitalized in intensive care, where he was “fighting for his life,” the chief said.

Neither the officers nor the speeding driver were publicly identified. A couple of other cars were involved in the crash, but those drivers had no significant injuries, he said.

The California Highway Patrol has been asked to investigate independently, with a full reconstruction of exactly what happened, Wahl said.

“There’s a lot of information that’s going to be coming forward, and there’s a lot of questions that we all have,” he said.

The San Diego Union-Tribune reported this month that a city oversight commission that reviewed data from more than 1,000 San Diego police pursuits recommended a dozen changes to policy, including engaging only in pursuits related to violent crimes.

A San Diego police officer wears a band over his badge in honor of a fellow officer killed in an overnight crash at the scene of the accident Tuesday, Aug. 27, 2024, in San Diego. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)

A charred police vehicle is seen in aftermath of an overnight crash which left an officer dead Tuesday, Aug. 27, 2024, in San Diego. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)

A charred police vehicle is seen in aftermath of an overnight crash which left an officer dead Tuesday, Aug. 27, 2024, in San Diego. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)

TUNIS, Tunisia (AP) — Dozens of members of Tunisia’s largest opposition party were arrested this week ahead of this weekend's formal start of the campaign season for the country’s presidential election, officials of the Islamist party said Friday.

Ennahda, the party that rose to power in the aftermath of the country’s Arab Spring, said Friday that tallies collected by its local branches suggested at least 80 men and women from the party had been apprehended as part of a countywide sweep.

In a statement, Ennahda called the arrests “an unprecedented campaign of raids and violations of the most basic rights guaranteed by law.”

Former Minister of Youth and Sports Ahmed Gaaloul, a member of the party’s executive committee and advisor to its imprisoned leader Rached Ghannouchi, said the party had counted at least 80 arrests and was in the process of checking at least 108 total. The arrests included high-ranking party officials and had continued through Friday afternoon. Among them were Mohamed Guelwi, a member of the party’s executive committee, and Mohamed Ali Boukhatim, a regional party leader from Ben Arous, a suburb of Tunis.

The mass arrests are the latest to mar an already turbulent election season in Tunisia.

With political apathy rampant and the country’s most prominent opposition figures in prison, President Kais Saied has long been expected to win a second term without significant challenge. But the past few months have seen major upheaval. Saied has sacked the majority of his cabinet and authorities have arrested more of his potential opponents. The country’s election authority made up of members he appointed has defied court orders to keep certain challengers off of the October 6 ballot.

Those moves came after months of cascading arrests of journalists, lawyers and leading civil society figures, including many critics of the president charged under a controversial anti-fake news law that human rights groups say has been increasingly used to quash criticism.

FILE - Tunisia's President Kais Saied speaks during a media conference at an EU Africa summit in Brussels, Friday, Feb. 18, 2022. (Johanna Geron, Pool Photo via AP, File)