Detectives in Riverside County are asking for the community’s help in a shooting investigation involving an off-duty Hemet police officer earlier this week.
On Sept. 16, officers with the Murrieta Police Department responded to reports of a shooting in a parking lot at 39540 Murrieta Hot Springs Road at around 9:15 a.m., the department said in a post to social media .
When police arrived at the location, they found an adult male suffering from multiple gunshot wounds , along with an off-duty police officer from the city of Hemet and several witnesses to the shooting.
A preliminary investigation found that a road-rage incident between two individuals occurred and was witnessed by the off-duty officer.
Details are limited and it’s unclear how the road-rage incident unfolded, as well as how the officer became embroiled in the situation, but police said the off-duty officer “subsequently intervened” and fired on the adult male, striking him multiple times.
Witnesses at the scene rendered life-saving measures on the gunshot victim before paramedics arrived and rushed him to the hospital where he was listed in critical condition.