Traffic stop morphs into 6-hour slow-speed police chase on California freeways

LOS ANGELES — A bizarre slow-speed chase across multiple Southern California highways Tuesday night ended nearly six hours later with an arrest and several unanswered questions.

According to the Los Angeles Police Department, the chase began around 7 p.m. in response to a report of a man with a gun. The driver of the silver Chevrolet Malibu refused to exit the car during a subsequent traffic stop and eventually drove away.

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When the chase ended about 40 miles away in Ontario, California, police said no weapon was found, and it was not clear if the man had ever been armed or if he had tossed a weapon from the window during the pursuit, KNBC reported.

The unidentified man was arrested on suspicion of felony evading and two outstanding warrants for burglary, the TV station reported.

LAPD Sgt. Juan Garcia, one of the officers involved in the pursuit, told KNBC that the suspect’s potential weapon discouraged members of the department from using a pursuit intervention technique, or PIT, maneuver in which a pursuing officer forces a fleeing vehicle to turn sideways abruptly and the driver to stop.

“Our policy generally prohibits us from conducting a PIT maneuver on somebody we believe is armed because it puts us at a disadvantage when we flip that car around,” Garcia said. “Now he’s face-to-face with us, and it is pretty unsafe.”

Garcia also told the TV station that multiple officers involved in the pursuit were forced to refuel during the chase.

“That’s a first of my career for such a lengthy pursuit,” Garcia said.

Cox Media Group