A man led police on an hour-long chase through two counties during which he repeatedly crashed into other vehicles and switched cars, police said.
Photo by Michael Fortsch via Unsplash.
A man is accused of carjacking several cars and leading police on a high-speed, hour-long chase through two California counties.
During the crime he was also seen hitting several cars, driving the wrong way through traffic and crashing into two police cars. And that was it caught liveseveral outlets reported.
It started around 5:00 PM on Wednesday, November 9, KTLA reports. Police officers attempted to stop the black Honda Civil for traffic violation, but the driver refused to leave.
Fullerton police caught up with the driver at an Anaheim apartment complex where he parked the Civic and traded it in for a white Chevrolet van, ABC 7 video shows.
The police tried to block the van and the driver crashed into a police cruiser until he was unable to get out of the apartment complex, according to the Los Angeles Times.
The van is owned by Anaheim resident John Reynolds, who told KTLA he was at Knott Berry Farm with his family when his the van was stolen.
I watched a police chase on TV and thought: “What am I going to do at work tomorrow?” – he told the publication. “I need this for work. I hope it can still be used.”
The driver veered off the side and rear-ended several vehicles, exited the freeway and eventually abandoned the van, according to ABC News.
He then ran into a home in Whittier, had a confrontation with the homeowner there, stole the keys to a work truck and drove off, rear-ending police cruisers in the process, the LA Times reported.
That victim, Andres Benitez, told NBC Los Angeles that he spent two years of savings for the truck he uses in his landscaping business.
The driver’s side front tire split and the driver eventually pulled over at a Hacienda Heights gas station, the paper reported.
The chase ended in “smoke, flames and arrowsABC News reports. A Los Angeles County sheriff’s patrol car rammed the stolen truck from behind, but the driver “still reversed and crashed into the patrol car,” and authorities fired shots through the driver’s window, the paper reported.
Deputies broke the driver’s window, pulled the driver out and led him to a patrol car. It is not yet clear whether he was injured, the publication reports.
“Obviously, this was an incredibly dangerous pursuit involving a suspect who had no regard for public safety, for the motorists on the street and the officers involved,” said Capt. John Radus, spokesman for the Fullerton Police Department.
