Deputy wounded in Rancho Cucamonga

He is shot twice during a records check on the driver of a suspicious vehicle.

A San Bernardino County sheriff ’s deputy was recovering at a hospital after being shot twice early Sunday morning in Rancho Cucamonga, the Sheriff’s Department said.

The shooting occurred after the deputy responded to a report of a suspicious vehicle parked about midnight in the 57000 block of Sycamore Court, the department said.

The department said the deputy, a five-year veteran of the force, made contact with the driver of the vehicle and had begun doing a records check when the driver opened fire, striking the deputy twice.

The deputy returned fire as the driver fled on foot, the department said. The driver was not shot.

The deputy, who was not immediately identified, called for help over his radio while also providing the shooter’s description, the department said. Additional deputies and officers from other local departments provided first aid, called for a helicopter to take the deputy to Pomona Valley Medical Center, and set up a perimeter, officials said.

Soon after, a suspect — identified as 35-year-old Nicholas Campbell — was seen walking in the area and taken into custody, the department said. Campbell, of Northern California, is on parole for carjacking, the department said.

Later Sunday morning, the deputy was resting and was listed as stable, the department said.

Sheriff Shannon Dicus said he had spoken to the deputy and told him “how proud I was of him and his response.”

Dicus praised the deputy for having “the presence of mind to give a suspect description” over the radio after he had been shot, so that other responding officers could make an arrest quickly.