BLAINE – A chase that ended in gunfire closed the U.S.-Canadian border crossing near here for several hours on Tuesday. Two men sought in a California homicide were arrested after one of them was shot.
The saga began in midafternoon after the Whatcom County Sheriff’s Office received a tip that two men sought in the California case could be headed to the area, Sheriff Bill Elfo said.
A car carrying two men matching the description was seen in Custer, about six miles south of the border on I-5. When a sheriff’s deputy tried to stop the car, the occupants sped off, reaching speeds of 100 miles per hour, Elfo said.
They drove their car through the U.S. Customs station at the Peace Arch crossing. The vehicle veered across Peace Arch Park, at one point driving north in the interstate’s southbound lane.
The men were eventually stopped by a sheriff’s officer who rammed their car with his vehicle, Elfo said. The men tried to flee on foot, shots were fired, and one of the men was wounded, the sheriff said.
The crossing is one of the busiest on the northern border. Traffic was diverted to the Pacific Highway truck crossing about a mile to the east as authorities investigated.
Lt. Mark Gagan of the Richmond Police Department in California confirmed that Ishtiaq Hussain, 38, and Jose Antonio Barajas, 22, were arrested after approaching the border and failing to stop. He also confirmed that Hussain had been shot and wounded. His medical condition was not immediately available Tuesday evening.
Both men were sought in the Saturday shooting death of a 43-year-old man in a Richmond apartment, Gagan said.
No one else was injured in the chase and capture, Elfo said.
Detectives from Richmond planned to fly to here to interview the men, Gagan said.
“Right now we’re working on extraditing both men back to the San Francisco Bay area to face the murder charges,” he said.
“I’m very proud of all our people involved,” Elfo said. “It’s a highly dangerous business trying to capture suspects such as these.”
Kelly Klundt, a spokeswoman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection, said her agency had no comment because the case involved an ongoing investigation.
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