Deputy sheriff shot in SB

A late morning shooting left a deputy sheriff wounded in the leg, a suspect dead and triggered a massive investigation in a San Bernardino shopping center.

The gunfire erupted at 10:07 a.m. in the Stater Bros. shopping center near Highland and Del Rosa Avenues.

A body is lying in the parking lot of the H. Salt Fish and Chips store just west of Stater Bros.

Yucaipa and Highland-based San Bernardino County deputies were conducting a rape-and-robbery investigation.

They learned that a male suspect might be in the shopping center. And when they got there, they spotted him and a woman, said sheriff’s spokeswoman Cindy Bachman.

When the suspect saw the deputies he ran, then turned and opened fire, investigators say.

“He struck one deputy in the leg,” Bachman said. “Several deputies returned fire … and he died ant the scene.”

The wounded deputy’s name has not been released. He is at a local hospital and is doing well, Bachman said.

The woman whose name also is being withheld, was arrested. Across the street, customers at a Wells Fargo Bank heard the gunshots.

“A security guard ran in and said, ‘everybody hit the floor,’” customer Edna Mitchell recalled.

People ran into the bank, apparently seeking shelter. But the influx scared at least some of the customers.

“You don’t know who these people are … or whether they had a gun,” said Mitchell who said there were fears of a robbery that never materialized.

Mitchell hid behind a partition while the guard and another employee locked the doors.

Initially dozens of sheriffs and police cars lined both sides of the street at the incident.

The shopping center and about a quarter-mile stretch of Highland Avenue continue to be cordoned off by investigators as of about 12:30 p.m.