Chase ends with suicide in Newport Beach

Bryce Alderton

A Huntington Beach man shot himself to death early Wednesday after he

held up a bar, carjacked a sports-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 Jr. entered Redz Juke Joint bar at

424 17th St. in Huntington Beach, Kelly said.

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

bartender, he said.

The bartender initially refused but handed over an unknown amount of

cash to the man 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 began

driving northbound on 17th Street to Palm Avenue.”

Minutes later a Huntington Beach patrol car saw the vehicle headed

south on Pacific 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 talk him into surrendering,

police said.

When they finally approached the car, officers found Radig 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.