Members of the public help restrain a suspect after the shooting of CHP trooper.

SAN DIEGO — Travis Almond was commuting home from work Wednesday evening, heading east on Interstate 8 in Mission Valley, when he encountered a patch of slower traffic from a wreck in the median ahead of him.

As he approached, Almond quickly realized it was something more than just a crash when he saw a California Highway Patrol officer and another man struggling for control of the officer's gun. Both men were standing and all four of their hands were on the weapon.

The officer's leg was "already soaked in blood," Almond said.

He immediately pulled over and rushed to help the injured officer, who has since been identified as Tony Pacheco, while other good Samaritans subdued the man with whom the officer had been struggling.

That suspect, 25-year-old San Diego resident Yuhao Du, was scheduled to be arraigned Friday on three felony charges, including attempted murder of a police officer. But Du — a graduate student studying physics at UC San Diego — was not brought to court because of undisclosed medical reasons, and his hearing was postponed until Tuesday.

Pacheco, a San Diego native who has worked for the CHP for seven years, sustained a serious injury to his right thigh, but was in stable condition as of Thursday in a San Diego hospital. The CHP's San Diego-area commander, Capt. Taylor Cooper, said Pacheco is expected to make a full recovery.

At a news conference Thursday, Cooper thanked the people who stepped up to help.

"In our eyes they are heroes," Cooper said. "Without the public this may have had a different outcome."