A suspect who allegedly threatened police at the LAPD’s Southwest station led officers on a chase through South Los Angeles today, whizzing through traffic on neighborhood streets and even driving on a sidewalk before crashing into another car and being violently torn from his vehicle by a swarm of officers.
“The suspect went into the Southwest police station and made a criminal threat, and that is where all this started,” said Los Angeles Police
Department spokesman Richard French.
French said the suspect showed up at the station just before 2 p.m., then fled, with officers in pursuit.
The suspect drove erratically through South Los Angeles streets, narrowly missing a variety of other vehicles and clipping some others as he eluded the police chase that was captured by television news cameras. At one point, he drove for about a block on a sidewalk, with at least one pedestrian running out of the car’s path.
An officer involved in the chase crashed a patrol car into a tree. KCAL9 reported the officer suffered minor arm injuries.
The chase came to an end at 37th Street and Normandie Avenue.
“The chase lasted about 20 minutes,” French said. “There was a collision that occurred at the end of the pursuit. That is when, with some difficulty, the suspect was taken into custody.”
The man crashed his car into another vehicle, and officers quickly pinned him in with patrol cars, then swarmed to the vehicle with guns drawn.
The suspect could be seen fighting with officers trying to pull him from the vehicle. Officers broke windows on the vehicle as they tried to arrest him. A team of officers eventually got him onto the ground, where the suspect appeared to continue struggling.
He was eventually handcuffed, and was carried to a patrol car. A small pool of blood was left on the street where the suspect was arrested.
The suspect’s name was not immediately available.
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