On September 17, Johnathan Carroll, a 38-year-old resident of Escondido, fired two pistol rounds from his vehicle at another car. One bullet went through the victim’s car door and struck the victim in the back, as he was driving on Pennsylvania Avenue from Ash Street. The victim is 20 years old and he had a 15-year-old passenger when they were shot at. Two shell casings were found at the scene. The victim called 9-1-1 and told the police he had been shot and gave the police the suspect vehicle description and the license plate number. The suspect vehicle was a white Mercedes GL450. The victim was treated at PMC for a minor gunshot wound and released. There is no known
relationship between Carroll and the shooting victim.
A registration check of the license plate provided by the shooting victim revealed that the registered owner was Carroll, who also had a listed address in Escondido. An Escondido Police Officer spotted Carroll driving his Mercedes in the area of his residence. Officer Chandler Hoppal got behind Carroll’s Mercedes and he activated his emergency lights. Carroll did not stop but instead accelerated and a high-speed pursuit ensued, at times reaching over 100 miles per hour. Carroll crashed his Mercedes while negotiating a right turn from Bear Valley Parkway to Encino Drive. Carroll’s vehicle collided with a raised concrete curb that disabled his vehicle. Officer Hoppal positioned his vehicle behind the disabled Mercedes and exited his police car. Officer Hoppal was the only police officer at the scene at that moment and additional officers were still responding.
Within seconds, Carroll opened his driver’s door and began to exit his car with a gun in his hand. Officer Hoppal fired 12 rounds at Carroll striking him in the head, arm and abdomen. Carroll fired his handgun twice. One round struck his own car and the other round was not accounted for. Two shell casings from Carroll’s handgun were located at the scene. Carroll was transported to Palomar Medical Center where he was pronounced dead.
Carroll’s gun was a 9 mm non-serialized semi-automatic handgun commonly referred to as a “ghost gun”. When the gun was examined it was missing four bullets from the magazine. An additional non-serialized handgun was located in the glove box. A non-serialized AR style rifle was located in the rear storage area. There was one loaded rifle magazine and several hundred rounds of 9 mm and 40 caliber ammunition in the car.
Officer Hoppal was not injured in the gunfight and he is currently on administrative leave per Department Policy. Officer Hoppal has been an officer with the Escondido Police Department for two years. The shooting was captured on Officer Hoppal’s body worn camera and will be released within two weeks. Body worn camera footage is required by law to be released 45 days from an incident.
If you have any information regarding this crime, please contact the Escondido Police Department, 760-839-4722 or Detective Chris Zack, 760-839-4404.
Follow the Escondido Police Department on social media @EscondidoPolice.
