SAN DIEGO, California — A family vacationing in San Diego from China were confused and did not yield to a police officer’s sirens as they sped down a freeway on Sunday night.
Police did not know who was in the vehicle that seemed to be evading a stop. The incident started when a patrol car attempted to pull the Honda CR-V over on the I-8 freeway, according to local 10 News. Once the SUV pulled over, a woman stepped out to the sight of officers pulling their weapons on the unknown vehicle occupants.
(Recently, the San Diego Police Department lost an officer when two were shot during a routine traffic stop. Officer Jonathan “J.D.” De Guzman died as a result of his injuries, and officer Wade Irwin continues to recover from his own, which included a shot to the throat that exited out of his shoulder.)
What officers pulling over the SUV on Sunday night discovered was that the woman stepping out of the vehicle was a Chinese tourist traveling with her husband and young son. Unfamiliar with U.S. traffic rules, the driver first stopped the vehicle in the middle of the freeway. 10 News reported that the vehicle then returned to speeding down the freeway for a few minutes, but ultimately came to rest on the shoulder.
The woman responded to officers by complying with her hands up, as seen in video included in the local news report. The male drive then was asked to exit.
Officers then discovered that the Chinese visitors were not familiar with American traffic laws, such as pulling over for police sirens. The couple’s young son was also removed from the vehicle, and the stop ended with high fives between the boy and an officer who gave him a SDPD police badge sticker. No citation was issued, and the family was allowed to drive away after a brief explanation of U.S. rules of the road according to the report.
The San Diego Police Department commemorated fallen officer De Guzman with a 800-vehicle procession on Friday. Some 2,000 officers from San Diego and across the country came together to escort De Guzman’s body to the church where memorial services were held.
Photo: file
Follow Michelle Moons on Twitter @MichelleDiana
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