Chase ends with suicide at the Wedge

Bryce Alderton

BALBOA PENINSULA -- A Huntington Beach man reportedly shot himself to

death early Wednesday after he held up a bar, carjacked a sport-utility

vehicle and led police on a chase that ended at the Wedge in Newport

Beach, police said.

Curtis D. Radig Jr., 36, was pronounced dead from a single,

self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head shortly after 1 a.m., said Lt.

Bruce Kelly of the Huntington Beach Police Department.

No one else was injured during the robbery and pursuit, which began

just after 11 p.m. Tuesday, when Radig entered Redz Juke Joint bar at 424

17th St. in Huntington Beach, Kelly said.

Radig brandished a large-caliber handgun and demanded money from the

bartender, Kelly said.

The bartender initially refused but handed over an unknown amount of

cash to the robber after he fired a single shot into the wall, Kelly

said.

Radig then left the bar and fired at two unoccupied vehicles parked

outside, police said.

Radig then confronted 33-year-old Whittier resident John Robertson as

he sat in his black 1995 Nissan Pathfinder, Kelly said.

“He demanded Robertson get out of the car and discharged two more

shots into parked vehicles,” Kelly said. “[Robertson] did and Radig Jr.

began driving northbound on 17th Street to Palm Avenue.”

Minutes later, a Huntington Beach patrol car saw the vehicle headed

south on Coast Highway, police said.

The officer followed the car while requesting backup when the pursuit

reached Superior Avenue in Newport Beach, Kelly said.

Radig fled to the end of the Balboa Peninsula and drove off the road

and onto the city beach near the Wedge, police said.

As Radig drove onto the sand, Newport Beach Police Department officers

and the SWAT team surrounded him, trying to persuade him to surrender,

police said.

When they finally approached the car, officers found Radig Jr. inside

with a single gunshot wound to the head, Kelly said. He was pronounced

dead at the scene.

No officers fired shots, and no officers were injured, Kelly said.