A man with a gun killed by police on Highway 101

END TIME: Agents from the Ventura County Sheriff's Office and California Highway Patrol open fire on a man a gun around 12:30 pm this afternoon on Highway 101 heading south to Calabasas. The unidentified man crashed his vehicle an hour earlier following a chase launched in Camarillo. He refused to submit to an arrest. Police said he had shot at police officers who had been forced to retaliate. MICHAEL COONS / Acorn Newspapers

A lawsuit that began Saturday morning in Camarillo with a call for domestic violence ended just before 12:30. in Calabasas with an accident and a fatal shooting involving an officer who fired on Highway 101 heading south just before the Las Virgenes Road / Malibu Canyon exit.

The driver of the fleeing vehicle appears on a photograph taken by Acorn fleeing behind his crushed Chrysler 300S with what appears to be a rifle in his hand. Officers from the California Highway Patrol and the Ventura County Sheriff's Office shoot him quickly.

STANDOFF: deputies on the left, the driver and his accident vehicle on the right, a few moments before his death. Courtesy of Brenda Cohen

The murder of an unidentified man was declared at the scene of the incident.

Sgt. Eric Buschow, of the Ventura County Sheriff's Office, said the lawsuit began after MPs responded to a call for domestic violence in the city of Camarillo. The pursuit continued through Oxnard and 101 South, where CHP joined the pursuit on Borchard Road in Newbury Park.

Brenda Cohen of Agoura Hills was driving with her mother and daughter to a family event on the 101 when CHP closed the highway after the driver crashed into a guardrail under the exit sign of Las Virgenes Road around 11:30 in the morning.

She was at the front of the traffic jam with police between her and the armed man. The shooting began after an hour – long confrontation between the police and the man, who had initially refused to get out of his vehicle, then came out and stayed behind.

"I could only see his face. Then suddenly there was a shooting. There were gunshots and he was dead, "Cohen said. "We had to lower our seats. We were dropped because we were in the front car. If there had been a lost bullet, it could have happened to us.

SUSPECT – The man peeks over the top of his car before the police opens fire. Courtesy of Brenda Cohen

Both sides of the 101 were closed for almost two hours before CHP decided to reopen the lanes northbound. At 4:30 pm, southbound Highway 101 remained closed between Lost Hills Road and Parkway Calabasas while law enforcement continued their investigation.