Wild Christmas Eve in Northern California city ends with fatal police shooting, DUI arrest

It was not a peaceful Christmas Eve in Redding.

According to the Redding Police Department, a man was hospitalized after being shot twice. Police shot and killed one of the shooting suspects after she allegedly stole a car at gunpoint at a pizza parlor, crashed into a Walmart and charged an officer with a pair of knives. As police where investigating the crime scene after they shot the woman, a driver, allegedly drunk, crashed into a police car.

Redding police Lt. Levi Solada described the wild night in a Facebook post. Solada said it began around 7 p.m. when officers responded to the 2500 block of Irwin Road. There, officers said they found a victim who’d been shot twice. He’s expected to survive after an ambulance took him to a Redding hospital.

As investigators were trying to piece together what happened, they learned a woman played some role in the shooting and that she had said she was going to shoot more people, Solada said.

As they were looking for her, the woman allegedly tried to steal a car at gunpoint from a man at a Domino’s Pizza parlor on Cypress Avenue. Her alleged victim fought back.

“A struggle ensued between the armed suspect and the victim,” Solada said in the Facebook post. “During the struggle, the victim was trying to wrestle the firearm out of the suspect’s hand. As this was happening, the firearm discharged and did not strike anyone.”

The woman was able to take the car, Solada said.

She drove the car to Redding’s Walmart on Dana Drive, crashed it through the store’s front doors, but managed to drive off, Solada said.

Minutes later, officers found the car parked nearby, but the driver had walked off. It didn’t take an officer long to find her, as she was walking down Browning Street not far from her car. An officer approached her on foot, and he shot her after she allegedly lunged toward him carrying two knives, Solada said.

Medics tried to save her life, Solada said, but she was pronounced dead after an ambulance took her to a local hospital. Police didn’t release her name, saying they would once her family was notified.

As officers had the street closed to investigate the shooting, a driver crashed into a police car.

The California Highway Patrol arrested the driver on suspicion of driving under the influence. The driver’s name wasn’t given in the Facebook post. No one was hurt in the crash.

Redding, a city of 92,000 people, is about 160 miles north of Sacramento.