Westbound I-10 closed due to officer-involved shooting

Westbound Interstate 10 was shut down indefinitely on Monday morning due to an officer-involved shooting, forcing many drivers to sit and wait or find another way around.

The shooting happened around 6:30 a.m. near the freeway’s Jefferson Street exit in Indio.

Indio police spokeman Ben Guitron said officers with the California Highway Patrol were first called to the scene around 5 a.m. after a driver hit the center divider on the eastbound side.

Soon after arriving, they were involved in a shooting with a person who was hiding under a bridge on the freeway. Guitron said it may have been driver involved in the accident.

“We don’t know what took place between the officers and the person, but it did turn into a shooting incident,” he said.

The CHP officers were not hurt.

The driver was taken to Desert Regional Medical Center in Palm Springs with unknown injuries.

Investigators shut down the westbound lanes of the interstate, so investigators could piece together the events that led up to the shooting, said California Highway Patrol spokesman Joe Zagorski.

According to the CHP website, officers hope to have the freeway back open by 2 p.m. on Monday.

Zagorski advised drivers coming into California from Arizona to take Interstate 40 as an alternate route to Los Angeles. He said Interstate 8 was a better choice if their travels were taking them farther south.

Stay with KESQ.com and CBSLocal2.com for the latest updates, and click here for a live traffic map of the backups and delays.