Investigators sought Wednesday to pin down how a 20-year- old man who had crashed a truck off Interstate 8 near the Parkway Plaza mall wound up suffering a fatal gunshot moments later.
The Lemon Grove resident was heading west through El Cajon shortly after 8:30 p.m. Tuesday when the white Dodge pickup he was driving veered off the roadway, went down an embankment and came to rest upright on an entrance to the freeway at Mollison Avenue, according to the California Highway Patrol.
Shortly after the crash, witnesses heard what sounded like a single gunshot, CHP public-affairs Officer Jared Grieshaber said.
The man, who apparently had gotten out of the pickup prior to the shooting, died at the scene. A handgun was found near his body, Grieshaber said.
There was no evidence that anybody else was involved in the fatality, which was being investigated as a possible suicide, the spokesman said. It was unclear where the man, whose name was withheld pending family notification, was heading or coming from at the time of the crash.
A pit bull terrier who had been riding in the truck survived the wreck, seemingly uninjured, the CHP reported. Personnel with the San Diego Humane Society took custody of the dog and will keep the animal until ownership issues can be settled, Grieshaber said.
