Du Yuhao, who is studying at the University of California, San Diego, attacked the police for unknown reasons and grabbed a gun following driving himself into a car a few days ago. (Picture / Retrieved from Twitter)
On the 27th of last month in California, USA, a Chinese student took a gun and attacked a police officer. Yuhao Du, a 25-year-old mainland Chinese graduate student studying at the University of California, San Diego, drove himself into the safety of Interstate 8 on the day of the incident. When the police arrived at the scene, they were attacked by Du Yuhao. During the process, police officer Tony Pacheco’s gun was seized and Du Yuhao shot and injured his right thigh. Du Yuhao, who is currently arrested, will face at least five felony charges.
According to comprehensive foreign media reports, Du Yuhao collided with Separation Island on the eastbound section of Interstate 8 near Mission Valley on the evening of April 27. The California Highway Patrol (CHP) dispatched Pacheco to the scene following receiving the report. Unexpectedly, Du Yuhao, who was standing in front of the Audi car, suddenly rushed towards Pacheco and tried to snatch his gun. During the scuffle, Pacheco was shot in the right thigh by Du Yuhao. Upon seeing this, the driver immediately stepped forward to assist the police, and finally successfully suppressed Du Yuhao and gave Pacheco a simple first aid.
It can be seen from the on-site video that Du Yuhao was suppressed and even tried to resist when the public held a knife to his face, while Pacheco immediately called the emergency code 11-19 for the police to fall to the ground, so the authorities launched a rapid response and closed the whole Interstate 8, causing serious traffic jams in the area. It is not clear why Du Yuhao ran out of control and attacked the police, but his colleagues in the Fogler Theoretical Physics Lab were also surprised when they found out: “Du Yuhao is usually optimistic and cheerful, I can’t imagine he would do this.”
However, court documents pointed out that Du Yuhao pleaded guilty to the misdemeanor charge of “disturbing the peace” in 2018 and was sentenced to 3 years of probation. At present, because Du Yuhao is still under compulsory observation, the hearing originally scheduled on the 29th was postponed to the 3rd of this month, local time. Du Yuhao is expected to be charged with attempted murder, assaulting a police officer, seizing a police officer’s firearm and causing grievous harm.
Although the police officer Pacheco is not in serious trouble following being sent to the hospital, he will face huge medical expenses. For this reason, his colleagues have launched fundraising on the “GoFundMe” website, hoping to alleviate the need for a wife, 2 children and the upcoming arrival of The burden of Pacheco, the third child, and Pacheco also pointed out when recalling the incident that “everything happened in seconds”.
