Man Charged With Shooting Boyfriend, Car Chase Through Menifee

MENIFEE, CA — A 51-year-old man was charged Tuesday with attempted murder in the shooting of his boyfriend in Garden Grove.

Ali Samoodi was also charged with assault with a deadly weapon, and faces sentencing enhancements for inflicting great bodily injury on the victim; the personal use of a firearm; and being armed with a firearm in the commission of a felony.

Police responded about 2:45 p.m. Saturday to the shooting in the 5300 block of Santa Barbara Avenue in the city of Garden Grove.

When officers arrived they found the victim in a back bedroom of the residence with a gunshot wound to the head, police said. The victim was rushed to an area hospital, where he was listed in critical condition, police said.

The defendant is accused of fleeing the scene of the shooting in a rented U-Haul truck, police said.

Samoodi and the victim had been dating, police said.

Police tracked the get-away vehicle to Menifee, where police there located it and attempted to pull the driver over, police said.

Samoodi led police on a chase for about 33 miles before he was finally halted near the San Bernardino (10) Freeway and Cedar Avenue in Bloomington when the vehicle, which had been in multiple collisions, broke down, police said.

The defendant refused to get out of the vehicle until SWAT officers from the Riverside County Sheriff's Department took him into custody, police said.

City News Service