FULL CHASE: Driver in stolen SUV leads LASD on dangerous pursuit on LA surface streets l ABC7

and is now traveling south in a low speed

pursuit

of Soto, stopping at all red lights here as they continue this

pursuit

. There are now about a half dozen Los Angeles County Sheriff's SUVs right behind them ready to execute a felony stop as soon as they pull up here. but at these slow manageable speeds they will follow him and continue the

chase

at a safe distance and wait for this to pass, they will play while it lasts, but again they are no real danger here as he is obeying many of the laws. just refusing to stop, guys, that's who we are unofficially, that's what we're hearing.

It is suspected to be a

stolen

vehicle. A Grand Theft Auto suspect is behind the wheel and as you can see, those windows are still nice from what I can see at least. From the

driver

's side, those windows are heavily tinted and we can't exactly see if there's anyone else in that back seat. What we're going to try to do here in the next few minutes is maybe look through the front windshield and maybe see if there's anyone else. inside the passenger seat, but right now only the

driver

we know, as far as we know, it's been going on for about 30 minutes or so, maybe a little less and only on the Surface deals for the most part while making his way. through East Los Angeles, it's notable that since we stopped at this, the distance that they're following you, I mean less than the length of a car, that head unit is less than the length of a car behind that SUV, stopping just to the right in its tail to the right.

Against that rear bumper here, aggressive tactics, but still no sign of any kind of pit maneuvers or anything like that, they're basically waiting for this guy to come out. You can see someone crossing the crosswalk there against Soto heading south. I think it may be 30th. and again it looks like you have the red light here, as far as we know it has stopped at most traffic signs and traffic signs, it looks like there is someone in the passenger seat so that there was obviously a driver in the driver's seat. accompanied by a passenger and it looks like there are a lot of belongings in the back seat, yes, yes, that's right, a small dog on that passenger's lap, it looks like a small dog, maybe a Frenchie, I don't know, no, it's like if he looked like a Percival.

It doesn't look like a car seat per se. I couldn't tell what it was, but maybe a container or maybe a cooler, something like that in that back seat. Together, a foreigner, driving quite composedly, now approaches Slawson Avenue as he does. He passed 54th Street and reached Slauson heading south. Soto, uh, very composed, driving almost the speed limit, frankly, about 35 or 40 miles an hour, so it's close to the speed limit there and it's always interesting with these

stolen

vehicle

chase

s that don't know exactly how it started? Did someone call and they caught up with the suspect?

Did anyone see it being robbed or is it a low Jack, perhaps with some type of tracking device inside the vehicle which they detected too early to tell, but whatever the original event there could be more crimes associated for which perhaps They're chasing you, that's also a chance to go with the flow of traffic here slowing down, stopping to the right here, stopping where you have room to play, is there anyone? in front of him Rob that's why now just a touch yes he has some traffic in front of him once he got on Shoto it's been pretty moderate traffic for much of this chase but again he hasn't shown any really aggressive driving and didn't choose to do it. walking on the sidewalk, for example, as we see a lot of times, or some kind of turning or circular traffic, it just goes with it and refuses to stop, so a stolen vehicle doesn't basically produce the two charges that we can count here, but I have a suspect as I suspect there.

In any case, there is more to this story: there are about half a dozen Los Angeles County Sheriff's units, which in itself is somewhat unusual, especially for the sheriff's department, they are often a little smaller and a little more conservative unless they know more than us. Normally they would follow with a primary unit, a secondary unit, perhaps a backup unit, and the aircraft. Thanks, yes, sorry, no. I was just mentioning that there is also a helicopter flying over here. Yeah, I saw that blanket you were talking about, obviously. A very small dog we saw there couldn't make out the debris, but in any case a female appeared in the passenger seat and once again stopped at the red light here in Slawson, on what is not Slauson Randolph Street, in south direction.

Soto on Randolph now with no traffic in the area, uh, completely stopping overseas, there was definitely an opportunity there, but just as you mentioned the LA County Sheriff, as we would often suspect, will back out of something like this, especially if driving becomes more complicated. Too

dangerous

in this case isn't too

dangerous

, but with so many units in pursuit and the helicopter hovering overhead it's a little surprising that he's now made a westward turn out of Randolph, which will put him in the LAX Bravo space, which will take him a limits our ability to follow him further west, so we're going to shoot him as much as we can, but you can see a woman with a stroller in the corner.

We have seen many pedestrians during the course of this chase. but again, they don't seem to be an exceptional danger as they continue to stop at every crosswalk, every red light, and they have to make a decision here: do they want to continue? He's in Pursuit mode, you can tell with just the flashing lights there on the drive right behind that SUV, do you want to continue this as a Pursuit or do you just want to follow him and meet him at some other point, but considering I think it's the only reason this is happening? Right now, guys, the speed is slow enough, he's basically traveling at a safe speed and doesn't pose any exceptional danger, follow him as long as you can, yeah, there goes the spike, a successful spike, a successful one. peak, it seems to have been successful, at least it passed over.

There were a couple of Sheriff's units just to your left as you were trying to swerve around that truck and they told me there may be a request for a pit train deputy, none of the deputies we're looking at here are apparently a pit train and, Instead, they have a group of units closing in on them, but no trained pit agents capable of executing a pit maneuver in any case. Anyway, he's not even going fast enough for a proper hole so we'll see if that comes into play, well this is this one, there you go, yeah, and you saw him speed up as fast as he's been in the whole chase .

He got up the moment he saw the officer stop right behind him, so obviously an officer from the pit train has joined the chase. He tried to curse, he tried to fishtail in the vehicle and it seems like I think he looks like a child in the back seat. There's someone in the back seat. I can't say for sure, Mark, but I think I saw what you saw. It looks like someone sitting in the back seat, right behind the passenger. Rob. Can you confirm that was that person? of a lot of things in the back seat but I thought I saw a movement uh in the back seat you see I still see I still see something moving it may just be objects moving in the back seat but in fact that looks like the seat is actually all the way up. , the back seat actually goes all the way to the passenger seat, so maybe it's just objects moving, maybe a cardboard box in there or something, something is moving in the back seat, not what I thought it was.

I thought it was, it looked like a kid for a second, but it doesn't look like there's anyone in that seat, but there's a lot of things moving around in the back seat. You can see a paper waving, yes, something like that, maybe even a reflector. I'd put the windshield on, I'm not sure, but you can tell from that hole he's really stepped on it now going 70 miles per hour northbound on Pacific Boulevard, uh, take this chase taking a very different profile now, just in the last few minutes. I'll see how those tires start to behave if there's any effect, but you'll notice that the sheriff's deputies have now backed off dramatically as he gains speed.

They have it, it's interesting because if it was a successful well, turn right now. Looks like that's going to be Santa Fe Avenue if it was, if it was a success, uh, Spike, now they have to follow this through to the end, they're less likely to let it go, it didn't seem like they were going to consider it. He was traveling at a very slow speed, but now he is going 60 miles per hour on

surface

streets

and he turns right onto Santa Fe Avenue and with a little more traffic in his path you can see that he becomes a little more aggressive as he goes. as we're in the middle of rush hour just south of downtown Los Angeles, thank you.

Check out this much more aggressive driving over the double yellow lines toward the median, doing everything he can to get away from the officers leading the chase. Now let's be attentive. As for the behavior of the vehicle, as I mentioned, it seemed to be a successful Spike strip, we'll see if those tires are affected at least on the passenger side. It looks like both tires are intact, but I think he actually ran them over. the driver's side tires so we'll see if we can see any kind of bouncing or any kind of instability with the vehicle and it looks like they're officially putting this back into surveillance mode so they'll follow it from a distance to the front.

Lanes of traffic were close, almost a head-on collision and now turning onto Santa Fe onto I think it's going to be 15th Street, so it's on 15th Street, uh, with the officers backing up a much narrower street here, no fear of get in. The oncoming lanes of traffic divert anyone in their path here and right now, a much more dangerous situation than the one we were facing just a couple of minutes ago and that's the calculus they have to play with when they decide to do so. In that hole or when they decide to run a spike strip, there is always the risk that they will get angry with the driver and things will become more dangerous and that is exactly what we are seeing here with a lot of oncoming traffic on this very narrow street 15 here in downtown Los Angeles. foreign foreigner yeah at least it's been going on for at least 30 minutes and I think we've been at least 10 now at least 10 maybe even 15. look at this making contact almost with that car huh but this is like a completely different person to the steering wheel that a few minutes ago you could tell that his adrenaline had increased dramatically.

Someone is crossing the crosswalk on a bicycle and is now turning right on Hooper onto Washington Boulevard back into downtown Los Angeles. We're having another look now. on the passenger side and again from my point of view it looks like these tires too or not, yes these are the configurations on the same side of the vehicle. I still want to see those tires on the driver's side. I felt like he made a good contact with that. Spike strip, but they seem to be intact, they're almost perfectly intact, so sometimes when you throw that Spike strip across the road, it might land face down and in that case, there's a chance that it doesn't have the desired impact in any case.

I watch them drive through stop signs across the paint into oncoming lanes of traffic, sometimes with only one car in their path. I think the closest units are around a football field, at least behind it, maybe even more since they've officially put this under surveillance. Anyway, they still have the airship above their heads, so they will be able to approach them fairly quickly. See, they're actually that, since it's actually CHP. The California Highway Patrol has apparently now taken over this pursuit. Guys. The California Highway Patrol now codes three in Once again, this apparent Grand Theft Auto suspect, whether they took it from CA of the sheriff's department or are simply helping, they are now the lead agency with a lead unit with Its lights and sirens blaring as it zigzags its way through downtown, arriving at 27th and Hooper 28th and Hooper now turns right onto Hooper Avenue with complete disregard for everything The Pedestrian and cars, look at that, oh, it was close to a truck there. and now back to the correct lanes, but it is very dangerous to drive here, we are just south of downtown, we will be approaching the Huntington Park area.

I think here very soon we will be forced to keep our distance while he gets back to it. Approach road to LAX and we'll be sitting on the 10 freeway as we try to follow from a distance here trying to look through this neighborhood. You can see they continue the chase through the trees here at about 50 to 60 miles per hour, that's a pretty accurate reading, almost double thespeed limit here, and a lot more traffic you are dealing with, but you will see that CHP is not kidding, they are willing to continue the chase where it appears the sheriff's department was not taking the right path.

Turn that was going to be from Hooper Avenue towards Vernon uh, back over the double yellow lines there with a lot of traffic and you saw that car hauling a flatbed truck there. I mean, it's almost hard to know because of the perspective we have. here, but don't hesitate, it's getting very close, very close to a lot of this other traffic, both the traffic and the right lanes, those westbound lanes and the lanes of oncoming traffic, here's someone turning, a lot Unsuspecting drivers are passing by. that intersection there and this has the potential to end very ugly if this driving continues uh you mentioned it Mark before the only really questionable and questionable behavior was the book you were waving at the driver's side window uh but now the game dramatically and I don't know how much longer they can keep letting this go, but in any case, CHP is doing a pretty good job of keeping up considering they have to comply with more laws than he does, they can't just jump into traffic lanes They're approaching without making sure they have authorization to do so and now he's putting a little bit of distance between him and that primary CHP unit that's still about a block away trying to get through here look at this, a lot of pedestrians.

I couldn't tell if he made contact there. I'm glad he turned right. He made a turn heading north toward uh, maybe, did you? Look, he's on Broadway, he just sped through an intersection, a crowded intersection with a lot of Crosstrack cross traffic as he continues north here, uh, very, uh, precarious situation here, he's doing ridiculous speeds right through these traffic lights are red and turning east. turn east, exit Broadway on the hill over the double yellow lines, once again coming towards us, coming straight towards us here, but yeah, very narrow lane coming with a stretch and a lot of traffic, a lot of traffic, very , very busy there.

Oh, another close call, it's miraculous he hasn't hit anyone so far. At least we've been able to confirm that it doesn't look like he's made any real contact, but plenty of close calls. at least, but this Wednesday afternoon's traffic is not the time to waste time with these types of speeds, you could say that he managed to lose, I think he lost that CHP primary unit, not that he lost it, but that officer at least has to do it. Stop temporarily until they can triangulate into a better location here, but we're going to try to go around him while he makes his way through here, there are a lot of buildings on the way here real quick.

I think he made that him. That's him, that's him, yeah. He can determine a right turn well and now he doesn't even have anyone behind him, so the question is how much longer is he going to continue driving like this even with no one behind him in his mind. He may have already escaped, in fact he may have already escaped if they have decided to let this happen temporarily or even permanently, uh again, if it is a LoJack that they are following, they can always follow the LoJack and follow him and simply find yourself. with the vehicle once you become arrested at some point in the future, there is no necessary reason to continue the pursuit unless there are more charges and more crimes associated with this than we know about, but if the driving continues in such a manner dangerous, then they will have to take more aggressive action we have already seen a well maneuver we have seen spike shots and none of those have worked in this particular case and they can't those are the residential area very narrow

streets

once again something random very random terms He doesn't seem to have a clear destination in mind, but the options are dwindling here, you know, he's not, he's not establishing any kind of pattern where they can set up another peak and pit maneuver on a busy Wednesday afternoon like this, where they don't There are other motorists. at risk, it was lucky, it was a stroke of luck that they had there in both situations where they were able to execute a pretty good pit maneuver that didn't spit him out of control, uh, and also with the Spike strip that was a Spike nice and clean and unfortunately neither has had the desired impact and continues to drive like crazy through the streets of downtown Los Angeles.

A foreigner almost at least made contact. I couldn't get on the train tracks. the train tracks are fine, you're now on the tracks parallel to Washington Boulevard, turning left and turning north out of Washington onto San Pedro Street which will eventually take you to the arts district here when you get to Skid Row, uh or should I say I should say the Fashion District, uh, as you head towards Skid Row and now under the 10 Freeway. The high speed continues to cut through all this traffic and now we're getting a much better view as you get closer to we. a bad double the speed limit, many cars are traveling south right now, he's doing about 70 miles per hour in San Pedro, if he continues through these intersections again, it's only a matter of time before someone gets hurt here, this is the worst case scenario with an SUV flying at these speeds through these busy intersections there is no doubt about it you almost know exactly how this is going to end foreigner yes unfortunately with these random turns there is no way really reach it or even think about preparing a spike strip, I mean this is a real dilemma because of the time of day and the amount of traffic, and now we are in the center, where skyscrapers abound, so there are many places for him to lose, the police lose. even the helicopters and potentially if he decides to do it uh and this would be the best possible scenario would be to maybe think about ditching the vehicle and trying to flee, you would have a better chance of escaping that way by hiding between buildings if you could find an overpass or a building stop or a parking lot uh that's the game here for a lot of the chase drivers we see coming into this neighborhood but he doesn't seem to show any signs of stopping so it becomes a question of how much gas is left in that tank and How much luck are you going to continue to have here because for the type of driving that we have seen here it is truly lucky that there has not been uh in At least that is what we have been able to say, there has not been anyone injured yet, sorry, Giovanna?

Did you say you saw it? Agents now in Pursuit. I'm told the LAPD has been instructed at this time not to get involved. Another busy intersection here is that you get to 8th Street and turn right on 8th and you're going to continue making these erratic turns here, but at least you're in a much more industrial area as you go. Are we still on Skid Row more or less like him? He makes his way up Gladys Avenue, another random turn to 9th, all random turns, one after another, probably looking for the road less traveled, where he has less traffic to deal with, that's probably what's going through his head as he makes his way. these turns. he sees a lot of traffic or finds an open road, look at this end, oh man, another sharp left turn will now be Town Avenue, yeah, that makes a lot of sense, yeah, because I didn't see any that I haven't seen. anyone for a while uh me every time I get caught up in a thought here he shows up at these busy intersections and I have to hold my breath there another close call almost head on with a car getting out of a car a parking lot that Corvette just passed him over and now continues down 12th street picking up a little more speed once again and I can't get past this part.

I mean, this is to be expected, obviously, as he continues and gets closer. Traffic lanes now and many pedestrians. lots of people crossing the street people on scooters people riding bikes people with strollers we have seen so many people who have had a lucky break as he just misses them while speeding through these red lights another busy crosswalk here lots people crossing the street The street here is just slowing down in time and now with the southbound turn on 12th Street onto Santee Street back to the 10 Freeway, you'd love to see it come onto the freeway, uh, it's coming out, it's coming driver down this alley, here he comes. the driver that will be leaving Santee one block south of Santee Alley one block south of 12th Street in the buildings here and now we will see if there are any police in the area to establish some type of perimeter, unfortunately I am afraid that maybe not There's enough of them, you'll have plenty of opportunities and I think too much time here, well that's what we're going to go around this building and see if we can catch a glimpse of the vehicle where it stopped and see if the woman in the passenger seat is still in the vehicle or if she is also running towards him, he is hiding in a, I mean, this is a glimpse that there is a parking lot.

There are many tall buildings and no police in sight. Unfortunately, I have to say that it certainly looks like he's going to get out of here at least for the time being unless someone can keep an eye on him and call the police and help them. but there are so many hiding places here, the best part, the best news here is that I can't think of a better way to end this considering the location, the type of driving we were witnessing here and finally we decided to just jump luckily I think we can say that No one has been seriously hurt here and that's not what I anticipated. huge, that's maple when you go to Santee, it was in Santee, one block south or one block east. that's one down one down right there that's that's what he did shit oh he crashed he crashed into that light pole okay that explains it that explains it he crashed into the light pole there that was blocking that building was blocking our view By the way, that's actually a parking lot, so there are plenty of places for him to hide here, but he basically crashed into that light pole.

Can you tell Rob is the woman still in the vehicle? I couldn't tell if she jumped too, but she is. She's not there, yeah, she's gone, the dog seems to be gone and now, as you could see, guys, not even a hint of foreign law enforcement, a lot of witnesses, a lot of witnesses, a lot of cameras in this area as well, but I think That you already know. Unless they can establish a containment area and quickly and I think it's too late at this point, this is probably their ideal hiding place and the LAPD will now get involved in the search for the suspect here, as they begin to get closer . the neighborhood, but has had plenty of time to find a hiding place or even continue to blend in here.

I just have a feeling he might get away anytime soon here. No one I know is on the way. he's been sent but no one and that gives him a lot of time to like him, I said, even if there are tons of witnesses and cameras and all the other resources they'll eventually use to try to track them down. uh time is working against them as they have time to blend in or just escape the area completely we'll be here copy that yeah it did oh that was tough good job guys that was tough , these are the most difficult.

It was great that Mercedes almost had me. I can't believe she didn't hit anyone.