Escondido : Alleged Drug Lab Raided, Man Shot

One man was shot and a suspected drug lab was destroyed when chemicals exploded during a Sunday morning raid by a task force of federal, state and Escondido drug enforcement agents.

Three police officers and two suspects were exposed to chemicals in the explosion and fire in a trailer behind a home raided by the Narcotics Task Force in the 900 block of North Midway Drive.

David Sanderson, 29, of the same address, was wounded by a task force agent who fired one shot at him, Escondido police said. Sanderson was in stable condition at Palomar Hospital on Sunday night. Three police officers were treated at Palomar Hospital for exposure to chemical fumes and released.

Sanderson and Ronald Dowler, 26, of Goldenrod Street, were arrested on attempted murder and drug charges. Dowler was booked into the Vista jail without bail.

Escondido police issued a statement that gave sketchy details of the raid, which started about 2:45 a.m. During the raid on a “suspected illicit drug lab” the chemicals exploded, blowing out the trailer’s windows, buckling its roof and igniting the fire, the statement said.

The fire destroyed the trailer, causing an estimated $3,000 to $4,000 damage, said Capt. Steve DiGiovanna of the Escondido Fire Department.

The police statement did not specify the kind of drugs allegedly being manufactured in the trailer or how the chemicals ignited.

The attempted murder charge may have been lodged because one man apparently threw chemicals at task force agents as they raided the trailer, said Sgt. Ken Burkett of the Escondido police.