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SAN JOSE — An erratic naked man led police on a lengthy, violent chase in a pickup truck with a shot-out tire before he was shot by officers at a West San Jose shopping plaza, witnesses and authorities said.

The shooting was reported just before 2 p.m. on Stevens Creek Boulevard in front of the Villa Shopping Center east of Lawrence Expressway. The man who was hit was taken to a hospital with what police described as life-threatening injuries.

Police said the encounter was preceded by a pursuit that began about four miles south. A resident of a home in the area of Eva Court, near the Campbell border, said she and her daughter were chased by a naked man — their neighbor — shortly after they got to their driveway.

The witness, who asked not to be named out of safety concerns, told this newspaper that the pair ran to a nearby park and that another resident called police. When San Jose officers tried to approach him, the naked man reportedly got into a blue pickup truck and sped away, hitting a patrol vehicle and at least one other vehicle during his escape.

“Eventually he tried to flee the scene and rammed a San Jose police car,” Sgt. Enrique Garcia said.

The witness said one of the officers opened fire at the fleeing truck, and that at least one of the vehicle’s tires appeared to have blown out.

“He hit my neighbor’s truck, then police shot at his vehicle,” the witness said.

About four miles north at the shopping center, 27-year-old James Shaw had just finished shopping at Harbor Freight Tools and was leaving the parking lot when he saw the truck coming off Lawrence Expressway and then onto Stevens Creek Boulevard.

“I was just about to pull out of the parking lot and I heard popping sounds,” Shaw said. “I immediately stopped my car and hid behind it.”

Garcia said the truck had become inoperable from the collision damage and rolled into the parking lot.

“Officers attempted to make the car stop and take the suspect into custody,” he said. “During that encounter, multiple officers fired at the suspect, and he was struck at least once.”

Garcia said the man did not comply with commands and aimed what appeared to be a weapon at officers. He also reportedly revved the engine and appeared to be trying to move the truck, prompting three officers to open fire.

None of the officers involved in either end of the encounter were injured.

Shaw recalled hearing as many as 12 gunshots. He said he saw an officer fire at the vehicle from about 25 feet away, and that an ambulance took someone in the pickup from the scene.

The shooting marked the first officer-involved shooting recorded in San Jose this year. On Friday afternoon, the pickup truck, partially in the street and partially in the parking lot, showed at least a half-dozen bullet holes.

“It’s not every day you see a shootout happening across from you,” Shaw said.

One of the suspect’s neighbors said the man did not show any signs that might have predicted what happened Friday. He said his brief interactions with the suspect, whom he described as a tall white man in his 50s with graying hair who might have been renting a room at a nearby home, gave the impression that he was “a normal guy.”

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Garcia said what spurred the man’s behavior is under investigation.

“We don’t know at this point what happened, what caused the suspect to act the way he was acting,” he said.

Surrounding streets and freeway ramps were restricted or shut down during the ensuing police investigation.

The three officers who opened fire on the man have been placed on routine administrative leave pending an investigation by the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office and the San Jose Police Department’s homicide unit.

This is the fourth incident this week in the Bay Area where suspects have rammed vehicles into police cars.

On Tuesday, a 16-year-old girl, who was a passenger, was killed when Fremont officers seeking robbery suspects shot at a vehicle that rammed their car trying to flee. On Thursday, Antioch police shot and injured a suspect wanted in connection with a shooting when the officer’s car was hit. In Mountain View, two suspects wanted in a rash of car burglaries were arrested Thursday night after ramming a police car while trying to flee an In-N-Out parking lot.

Check back later for updates to this story.