HOUR-LONG STANDOFF: Wild chase involving kidnapping suspect ends in standoff in Compton

glass and the shots, we have not seen any movement from the

suspect

at this current point where we are currently since that shot that you see on the right side of the screen, again, we believe that just fewer lethal rounds were fired. and as we speak, you know, there appears to be some movement there on the passenger side, it appears that his hands were, yes, his hands were out of the window, you can see some of the officers there on the side. top of the screen. uh taking defensive positions uh and I was wrong actually we saw it after those shots were fired we saw the

suspect

put a pillow against the passenger window and then we haven't seen any movement from that point until now a couple of seconds ago, when the news 7 was moving around this tree to the other side, and we saw those you know stick their fingers out the passenger side window and it looks like it now appeared to be a blanket that had been spread across that window. the door frame and that's a bit of a new development right now, so we briefly thought for a second, or at least I did, that maybe his hands were raised because he was going to leave and uh on this everything but it seems like so maybe he was trying to put the blanket down to continue barricading himself inside that truck there and maybe that's why we saw this individual's hands, but the officers are still C, they're certainly waiting for him to come out. at some point uh and maybe they're giving you orders too, of course, we can't hear that part, there's no audio for us, uh, we want to mention it too, just, uh, you know, it's Friday night, it's in the middle of the rush.

hour

and this is certainly having a big impact on traffic, let's zoom out a little bit so you can see this, Highway 91 westbound again, Santa Fe exit at Compton and traffic is now backed up for miles. eastbound remains open as you can see on the screen, but just take a look at that stopped traffic, for Miles to spread out on the freeway, as this situation drags on, yes, I'm a little surprised that those lanes in eastbound are still open.

CHP typically takes a more cautious approach whenever they believe a suspect is armed, and based on the information we have obtained so far, Long Beach Police appeared to believe the suspect was armed. and of course they have given that information to CHP so that they know that the suspect is possibly armed and that is why they are taking these defensive positions behind his vehicles. Brian, our photographer, does a great job showing us the wide and close shots. -oops back to traffic uh we were talking about which of course is a you know for anyone trying to get around this Friday night uh this is on westbound 91 near the Santa Fe exit ramp uh and traffic is backed up I'm looking On some of our traffic maps here, traffic is backed up all the way to the 605 right now, it doesn't seem like it's affecting the 710 too much, although that's where it was before, but things seem to be a little bit uh smoother sailing on that 710 so 91 westbound definitely affected definitely something you'll want to avoid um the 405 surprisingly uh through the South Bay curve looks pretty good right now if you're looking for an alternative route, the 105 has backup there. but you will definitely move from east to west faster than using this 91 as we look again at the CHP officers definitely taking a defensive stance when we saw that movement earlier in the van, we saw These officers looked almost surprised, it seemed like with the lack of visibility You know, I can assume at this point that there's probably a miscommunication.

Typically, they would like to be giving commands to the suspect and getting some type of response from the suspect, but because of that visual barrier, we haven't heard any indication that the suspect is responding verbally or anything of that nature, so that lack of Communication definitely raises the stakes to a standstill. Part of it is so these officers have to take this defensive posture and just wait for something to happen here, but we do know that the vehicle may not be completely disabled, but it has a lot of damage, at least. two of the wheels are flat, two of the tires, sorry, we don't know exactly how that happened if it was part of that first

chase

that the Long Beach Police Department was involved in, but at least at this point two of the the wheels are down, the vehicle has been involved in an accident.

We watched that pit maneuver video earlier which led us to what we're seeing now, where the truck spun and hit the right side wall, so what about you. We're watching that video now, thank you Lita, our director for filming it, so we don't know if the vehicle can't move completely, but it's definitely completely surrounded, and at this point the officers have the time element in their hands, this suspicious. Can you know to wait and wait and wait until he is hungry or has to go to the bathroom? But these officers may change different shifts and may bring different people in there, so they are definitely in it for the

long

haul.

There is more. Most likely, officers from the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Office have been called in, that's the Special Law Enforcement Bureau, known to most people as SWAT, so those teams are on the way with the armored vehicles they can get. They're pretty close and can use other non-lethal means to try to get this suspect to surrender peacefully or at least push this

standoff

into the late

hour

s of the night, but you definitely know all those things that were said. That Highway 91 is going to be off limits for a while

long

er. Yeah, I imagine that makes it difficult too, you just have the barrier there with this blanket or sheet or whatever.

Pillowcase. You know, it could be any number. of things, but since the officers have lost that visibility to see what this person is doing inside the vehicle, I mean, I think that makes it a little more difficult for them and that's probably part of the plan and why he put it . there, to decrease visibility, but like you said, now he's just waiting, but without seeing what he's doing inside the vehicle and, knowing that he is, I think we believe that he is armed or we know that he is, I think that's a little bit. A little disturbing and again you mentioned that kind of defensive position, behind their vehicles, in case there is some kind of exchange of gunfire, because as this situation goes into the night, we see that the sun is you. you know the setup and then you know, I guess the Darkness cover also adds another element to it, as they try to get this person to exit the vehicle and surrender, after what has been several hours again to recap if someone just joined us what started as a

chase

on the 710 with an individual a

kidnapping

chase um then there was a

standoff

for some time and the man got back into the truck um and at some point and we're not clear when the

kidnapping

victim, a woman, as we understand, he was in that vehicle, he was able to escape and then the officers were obviously still chasing the suspect there, so after the chase there was a standoff for quite some time and then there was a point where he decided his vehicle was still running enough to start again and maybe we'll play that video again, but at that moment there's a pit maneuver and you're seeing the wheels only on their last stretches um I can't go very fast um and that brings us to the point where now we're uh now we're back on standby um while the vehicle just sits there with some kind of cover the passenger side window waiting for you know what happens next, meanwhile the drivers trying to get home on a Friday in the afternoon they are probably very frustrated right now as they deal with the situation on Highway 91 westbound, yes, a very frustrating situation for the drivers and us.

We were talking about what led to these multiple confrontation scenes, multiple chases, multiple jurisdictions, and you have to wonder what this suspect's mental state is like right now, because the behavior that we saw before, you know the previous confrontation and then the confrontation that led to a really short side chase uh and at the end of that side chase we saw the suspect um pull over to the side of the highway and get out and walk a little bit and then get back in the car and continue so that leads to kind of a third chase, so to speak, now with CHP after the suspect.

This was about 710 southbound about an hour ago and then the suspect continued westbound or the driver continued westbound on 91, at which time that is. uh when we saw the pit maneuver that we showed video of earlier that led to the situation that we're currently in, one interesting aspect of this is the victim, uh, who was kidnapped and escaped, was actually told Los officers at some point in this whole thing that person didn't want to press charges and didn't want to pursue that further, so that leads me to believe that there may be a domestic violence aspect to all of this. or something of that nature, definitely stressful moments for this driver that obviously lead to this erratic behavior and now the erratic behavior in the sense of confrontation, where we have seen the hole and we saw the pillow being pushed to that point. passenger window before that we saw less lethal rounds being fired and uh I would be curious to know if there was something that instigated CHP to fire them.

Oh I see some movement there from the passenger window, not sure if that's just the wind or if there's something else causing that, it very well could be just the wind, a windy night there on what we're now told is the Compton area, so that's probably all it was, but You know, it's very hard to say, mhm, and we saw too much in the corner, lower left corner, just a couple of moments ago, another Patrol vehicle also appeared in the scene, so it looks like there might be more reinforcements arriving. and more support as the situation drags on, you know, regardless of whether the victim says, "Hey, I don't want to press charges." I mean, there are certainly a number of charges now that will be on the table for this whole situation and Um, you know, the top bureau officers in a chase and the standoff and just what we've seen happen is so interesting, you know.

There are a lot of unanswered questions in terms of what that situation was, the relationship between the suspect here in this van and the victim. and um also where is that individual now how could they escape. You imagine there's somewhere maybe with the police answering questions about how this all started and maybe even I don't know helping in some way to get in touch with this. with this person, um, like this confrontation as they try to, you know, get him to surrender peacefully. I'm not very familiar with how those situations play out and how those negotiation conversations go, but the end result is to get this person out. as safe as possible not only for your right to safety but also for the safety of the officer um and as we watch this, there are often some tense moments of well, how is this going, how is this going, how is this going to end? ?

We'll have to excuse our live footage, we'll see the live footage disappear momentarily and we're going to do some tape recording earlier in this Quest while we work on the Broadcasts aspect on um air7 to try and uh. Make the picture a little cleaner for us, but this is what happened before, what got us to where we are today, this is in the same place on westbound 91, near that Santa offer ramp Faith, and you can see those. uh, less lethal rounds were fired through the passenger window, those bullet holes, the broken glass, multiple rounds, uh, that were being fired at that time, went through the passenger window, we also saw bullets go through the rear window of this truck, um, on the On the other side of the truck, I think it has a company name on it and hopefully we'll see that when we get back to the photos.

There's Planet Tree Service Inc, so let's give it a try. find out what that company is and maybe that could lead us to have a little bit of information about who this suspect is and what may have led to the events that occurred today, now that we're back with this live footage. Now sometimes Air7 needs to change receivers to get a better signal between them and us, so that's what just happened there to give you guys at home a little bit of baseball, but now we're here. Looking back live at these images where you can see nothing has really changed, you see a lot of these CHP officers.

I count 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 uh and there's more up ahead on the highway if uh Bri uh Brian our photographer zooms in a little bit, we could see how far CHP has its resources in the scene here here, I think there could be another unitCHP a little further ahead helping with traffic. control, but at this point, CHP is going to hold their positions, you can see another unit coming in the wrong direction, that's pretty normal, with something like this, but the CHP officers are going to hold their positions, and pretty much wait. for help you can be sure it's a Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy so that brings me to what I was going to add and that is thatuh CHP is going to ask for SWAT resources uh on this and it's more than likely coming from the Los Angeles County Sheriff's department and their uh special enforcement office um we've done stories about their uh their Bearcat and their uh medcat uh armored vehicles um that can be really essential in scenes like this in terms of drawing attention to a suspect that is hiding or in a hard to see area or inside a vehicle like this, so those resources surely have been called in, as CHP officers wait and see what this suspect decides to do next, yes, and to suspect advantage, you know, a lot of times when we see Pursuits, it's usually a vehicle that's much smaller and easier to handle.

Look inside, but for this suspect in this truck, you know he doesn't have to stay in the front area, the only window is blocked on the passenger side by a towel or whatever, and at any moment you know if he is. crawling or he's going backwards or he has access from the front to get into the back, so you really don't know where he is in this vehicle right now as you're trying to locate him, locate him and get him to come. um I think the back window was damaged at some point, so I mean, hopefully, that would give these officers a little better view of the interior, possibly, but you already know where it is. him and again we see a little bit of movement with the window, but that tree is also blowing pretty aggressively, so it looks like it's just the wind and there's no movement coming from inside right now as we get a close up, um.

The vehicle, yes, as the sun sets, it will create a little bit of glare on the camera lens, but we saw that Long Beach Police Officers, Canan, actually showed up on the scene, those were the police. cars to the left of this scene right now, so they have a Canan officer here and you can see them, I think they might both be canine officers, yeah, yeah, it looks like they are, and they're both going to be from Long Beach. PS, that goes hand in hand with what we were hearing before the Long Beach Police Department started this pursuit, which led to the standoff and what are we seeing here?

Booth, if we can, okay, now we have Air7 HD, back. In the scene here with a little bit closer view of the passenger side window and now you can see some movement there, the suspect has one hand on the door and he's moved the blanket to the side and uh Booth, I think Chris Christie will now join us. Let me know if we can get him to join the conversation now. Yes, Gabe and Michelle, if you can hear me, we're coming back to the scene here and now we have another look. Once again, with the suspect's hand out the passenger window, we now see movement.

I think correct me if I'm wrong. This is the first movement we've seen from the front of this truck, at least in about 20 or 30 minutes. he had some kind of barricade himself and he protected himself with some kind of pillow or whatever he got in there after shots were fired inside that van which we believe were all non-lethal shots of pepper spray or some other type. of weapons, but in any case you can see that they have made holes in the passenger side, there are holes in the back of this truck and during all this time they have not had visibility inside this truck, now the question is: Are they going to call the SWAT team and can I tell you that we are receiving word that the SWAT team is not on the way?

The Sheriff's Office Special Enforcement Bureau has declined to participate in this at this time. California. The Highway Patrol has the ability to get in there themselves with shields and other means, including canines, etc., to try to extract this suspect from the vehicle, but this is a different situation where sometimes these chases and situations can become territorial where there are different agencies competing to get involved and help each other and in some cases no one wants to be a part of it and in this case this seems to be one of those hot potatoes where everyone just wants to, you know , let the Let the officers on the scene do what they have to do.

They have tools at their disposal. They have negotiators en route. California Highway Patrol negotiators on staff who are on their way here, as well as additional canines to make sure. the suspect doesn't get very far if he tries to flee and those canines are sometimes used to pull the suspect out of the window if the officers see fit, so they have options here, there are Bearcats nearby, but none of them are being deployed in this moment at this moment. The California Highway Patrol has only the units that we see on the scene there with Kines and they are going to carry this out hopefully, uh, the suspect will surrender peacefully, but they do have the means and the will to use Force if they do.

They consider it necessary, as already seen in this ordeal, but it's just one of the

wild

est situations I've ever seen considering how this started with a

wild

Chase ending through Long Beach. on the 710 freeway, the Long Beach police find themselves in a standoff with this driver and finally decide to let him go only to continue the chase on a completely different highway with a completely different agency, everyone just wants this to come to an end. Yes, Kristen, as we look at these two live images, we have the Newscopter 7 on the right and your Air 7hd photos on the left and this close-up you can almost see the suspect's face, definitely two. hands looking through that sheet and you can see a spotlight from one of the CHP uh uh vehicles now trying to shine through that window and answer your question about the movement so far.

I think where you left it was Right after uh the less lethal rounds were fired and then the suspect put a pillow against that window, about 30 minutes after that the suspect put this sheet on the window and that sheet blocked the view of through this. uh passenger side window and it was just a few minutes ago, when you were arriving, that the suspect decided to at least lift part of that sheet and it appears that he is possibly starting to communicate with the officers, I can write there. to see a mouth moving there, you can see one of the officers, uh, gesturing, definitely communicating, trying to convince this suspect to just drop it at this point, you know, it's taken a lot of time and resources, he's distraught. a lot.

People are traveling on Friday night, but you can see some agitation on the part of that suspect, some finger pointing at the officer behind there trying to reason with this suspect at this point and you mentioned the CHP negotiators who are on the way here. and that officer there on the scene has some negotiation training or is just trying to deal with the situation at hand until those crisis negotiators come on the scene and you mentioned that different agencies handle this in different ways, thank you. you for that additional information about the Sheriff, you didn't decide to get involved, we saw those Long Beach police officers, can9, there on the scene as well, but as you mentioned, CHP took the lead on this, they probably aren't.

They're also not going to get involved, but the fact that they were the initial leaders in this whole situation, they might want to be here to see how things turn out and then, you know, take it from there, yeah, I do. they will. waits in the background but of course as you know Gabe CHP is definitely the one in charge and when they are in a chase or any situation like this they tend to do everything themselves and if they need help they will ask. but they're usually one of the better known territorial agencies anyway and I'm noticing a lot more communication here as you pointed out and that's a good sign because it's really not a great view, but it's the first decent view. view that we have seen of his face and his demeanor as now he is actually communicating for the first time with that officer right there so the communication is good they were able to see his hands at least for the moment that is good and if is exchanging some type of information or personal information or what type of information is all Intel for these officers in terms of figuring out how to proceed and those negotiators are going to be very helpful, whether that officer is one of them or whether it's a uniform negotiator the one who will arrive here, uh, it seems that at least they are talking to him and now all those unknowns of what is happening in the back of the truck are a little more known whenever they can. see his hands and contact him in the front of that truck in the passenger seat there, you're in no position to put it in reverse and try to escape here.

I don't think the truck is in any position to move uh from the shoulder there it's really stuck there with no tires left and uh it was an effective hole that really put an end to this it's just a matter of how it

ends

up coming out of the vehicle we know that in a moment right before the pin maneuver, he lit something, whether it was a cigarette or something else, he was smoking something and, you know, basically, you got the impression that he was, you know, starting to relax, he had one hand on the wheel, like if I were browsing. at a very slow speed on the highway and now and if you don't already know that he just wants, at some point he's going to get tired and he just wants this to come to an end, it's already been a long day for this guy, his adrenaline is going To shoot. he's starting to slow down here and he's just going to lose the stamina to keep up these tactics until now, you know, as long as they can see his hands and continue this communication, this conversation could go on for quite a while, but hopefully, hopefully.

It won't, uh, uh, I say that with the thoughts of all the people who are stuck on Highway 91 in my mind because they have places to go, it's Friday night at the end of rush hour, traffic has been severe . shocked this afternoon and tonight because of this ordeal and it's no fun for anyone involved so I hope you can get him to open that door and just walk out and if he doesn't at least he'll be in a position that you might think about that they feel safe unleashing the Kine in their direction, yes, visual confirmation is key in this situation, just the fact that we can see both hands, we can see where this suspect is, Michelle, that you were talking about earlier. just the fact that it's a van and before when we didn't have a view of the front area of ​​the van you know the idea was that the suspect could be anywhere inside the van so now that we see you know both.

With our hands we see that it is, you know, safely, in the front of the truck, which at least gives the officers more comfort, you know, being able to handle this situation, and just the fact that it is communicating with officers right now is definitely a very good sign, I want to mention something we talked about earlier, there is the name of a business on the side of this truck. We have indications from previous CHP radio traffic that that CHP believes that the suspect in this vehicle has nothing to do with that company, so we don't, I don't want you to know, falsely link this company to anything else, but we are listening from CHP that the owner of that company recently sold this truck. and that's how this truck got tangled up in this whole thing and it turns out that it still has that company's name on this truck, but anyway, as we continue to watch this live footage, you see that officer on the bottom right. corner of your screen, um, he was talking a little bit there and he just took a bit of a defensive position, now he's got his gun in his hand, that's a bit of a negative turn of events, right, Chris, yeah, uh, no I do.

I imagine he probably or someone had a gun in the passenger window the whole time? I can't imagine they won't at least have something pointed in his direction just in case, especially without knowing what he has next. to his person there, but now it looks a little more confrontational as they walk him away again hiding behind that sheet, now you have two officers behind that door with their guns pointed at them and all of a sudden that communication stopped. more officers with their weapons in their hands, long weapons, pistols, whatever, now everyone is back on the defense, ready to use the Force, if they put it, if it puts them in a position, and you, you're right, you know they took away.

There was a slightly more relaxed tone for a moment, especially those guys on the left, now they are all ready with weapons trained on various sides of that vehicle, so we also see that the CHP helicopter flying around the workshop should take into account thatyou know, if this were LAPD, sometimes you know they could gather more information in terms of what's going on inside the vehicle with the infrared technology that they have. I don't think so and I'm not sure, so don't quote me, but I don't think the California Highway Patrol has the same capabilities. I know they have some, but the exact capabilities.

I'm just not sure what we see for sure is a k9. There are more canines on the scene there on the scene. And I think at some point one of those puppies will be used and it always makes you nervous to even think about it because you don't want to see these animals put in a precarious position, but that's their job if duty calls and they're ready in case of. that you can see everyone much more tense now that he has removed that shadow from there and now it is not visible to the naked eye, so without that. visibility the attitude is different he's hitting the glass look at him trying to use it that's a spare tire that's a spare tire he's pushing out the passenger side window wow as the conversation continued that was also my thought is we were watching his hands, but he could have a gun in his lap or you know anything, and now, in a matter of seconds, we've seen that all of a sudden the behavior, the body language changed rapidly and now we're looking at this spare tire. and what appears to be a brown paper bag on top is being used for what reason I don't know I'm just talking speculation to make the barricade a bit yeah I'm just trying to hide he's basically trying to hide and essentially for everyone . intentions and purposes entrenching himself maybe not as effectively as you know he would like but you know again he has evidence that he has very limited tools at his disposal inside that truck, let's hope a spare tire is the heaviest, uh uh you know , the tool there because really, if it's just a matter of waiting for it, they could do that and eventually they'll be able to do it at some point.

I mean, again, this has the potential even though we don't have armored vehicles in the situation yet, it's certainly a potential at some point down the line, when enough is enough, they'll force tear gas into that vehicle and eventually take out the suspect, but without those Bearcats with no special surveillance on the scene, there are no SWAT teams ready at this time, uh, it's actually just uh, you know a lot of shenanigans and watching it see it unfold is a waiting game time, it's on the forces side of order here, but they have all the time in the world, uh, they could play these games all night until he's ready to give up and you and it's like he's grabbing for anything in that van and um, we don't know what else he could have in that truck, but we hope that's the extent of it.

It's just small, light things, you see him now trying to push a cardboard box out the window of that truck and that K9 is ready biting off the piece to try to get in there, um, I would say, oh, the suspect, you know. the face is peeking over the top of that cardboard box, yes, it's PE, it's looking through it, but that cardboard box and that tire are enough to really reduce the chances of them deploying that canine, eh, that canine will not deploy unless they have some visibility of what is happening there and an entry point so the dog can even get through the window, so it at least has the effect of keeping the dog away at this point, the tire, cardboard, no, you know what it is.

Not exactly, you know, grade A Teflon, you know, protection, but it has the effect of keeping that dog at bay from the very definition of a barricade, although, you know, using whatever is at this man's disposal, from the blanket to the pillow. that spare tire and now this cardboard box before, when we had a better view of the suspect, it probably would have been a better time to, you know, have the dog go in there so as not to guess anyone, but now that you have all that debris , I'll call it on the passenger window, uh, that's going to delay like you were saying, probably stop the opportunity for that CHP canine to jump in there, um, it's interesting that, uh, I mentioned that CHP will take care of everything here and I saw in the back of CHP officer's vest that said CHP, so it's a CHP canine that has been specially requested to the scene to deal with this situation as we see the officers continue to adopt this defensive posture just waiting to see what the officer does. suspicious, yes, the waiting game is on and this is a situation that has all the signs of a confrontation that could last, you know, in the dark, the sun is literally setting as we speak, so at some point they will face daylight and in the night hours, again, it could be over in five minutes, like I say that or this.

It could last well into the night. I doubt it a little. You know there's a, you know, definitely, a sincere desire to reopen the freeway. They want to reopen the highway because thousands and thousands and thousands of people are stuck in this mess and shutting down. Going down a Los Angeles freeway is not something they take lightly, of course, there are a million reasons why we see it all the time, but you know they have to figure this out, but again, you don't run the risk. risk of any lives down there. on the ground they're not going to endanger any officers, they're not even going to endanger those dogs unless they feel safe sending them there, um, that's why that that that animal over there that canine unit that's a last resort uh they'll exhaust all other options before that canine gets in there, but we've certainly seen this happen many times uh again with all that debris on the passenger side.

I don't think that's the entry point, but at least it's PL, it seems like you have a small window to still stick your head out a little and yell at these officers what you're saying, we can only guess what you're trying to say. or what you are trying to do. to communicate, you know we saw him gesturing with his index finger earlier as if maybe he was begging them not to shoot anymore. He probably didn't like that the first time, especially with those pepper balls floating through the uh or shooting through the uh. the front of that truck, I'm sure it was uncomfortable, but it didn't have the desired effect of getting him out of the vehicle and that's the priority right now, you just don't know how long it's going to take, but it's really anyone's guess. that this could go on for quite some time or they could make a decision to end this sooner rather than later, but without the heavy artillery without the heavy artillery.

It's just, uh, not a good sign in terms of everyone's dinner time here. Is something happening on the driver's side? uh we can't really see it from this angle, but it's the driver's side is still intact, on the other side of the driver's side window, is it doing something? There are officers kind of focusing their attention on that side in case he decides to use that route to try to jump that way or anything, so what they don't have is anyone directly blocking the driver's side, of course, they have more units. above. there, so he won't get very far if he runs out, but it looks like if you zoom in on Rob a little bit, there's an officer, yeah, there's a handful of officers in the left lanes.

They are far behind, but at least they have some visibility. If there is anyone in those cars, it appears that many of them have converged on foot to the right side of the vehicle, but if there is anyone there, at least they have some visibility. On the driver's side, we're going to turn around very quickly and try to get eyes on the driver's side while we have the chance. You can see that the CHP helicopter is also providing reconnaissance on all sides of the vehicle as they fly around that truck, but right now my hunch is that he's sitting on the passenger side, right behind that spare tire, that that tire Aftermarket truck may actually be giving you some kind of false sense of security, at least something to hide behind, and as we get closer, you see them huddled together in the middle of the highway trying to strategize and figure out which will be your next move, but let's get out now and see if we can get a better look at the driver's side around this tree.

We'll see if he's put up any other barricades or some other type of protection to block visibility there and it looks like there's not just the glass, just that broken glass window, uh, I don't see that there. I tried to get something into the driver's side, so again, my hunch is that he's in the passenger seat, right, yeah, and you can see here on this driver's side. There is definitely damage to the driver's side front tire when we look at the backrest. here on westbound 91, you can see here, there's traffic exiting in the wrong direction, they have traffic a little further back, exit in the right direction, um and at this point, when we've seen standoffs like this before, CHP really will make an effort to get everyone who's stuck off the highway, at least eventually, it might take a while, but they'll try to get everyone who's stuck off the highway, but that might take a little while.

Have people exit the wrong way and legally clear the scene so at least anyone who is stuck can find a way to continue on their way and then the people further back will simply encounter a closed highway and have to exit accordingly and that's all you know because of this right here what we're dealing with with this confrontation uh uh this current confrontation scene has been going on for about 45 minutes now um after multiple chases and a couple more confrontations previously um just To To give everyone an idea of ​​what led up to this, we believe that Long Beach Police began this pursuit of a kidnapping suspect a few hours ago and that the chase led to a standoff on the 710 Freeway at some point during the standoff. the suspect took off again and stopped and exited the vehicle and walked a short distance and then returned to the vehicle at which time we believe the CHP took over the pursuit and the suspect exited onto 91 westbound.

It was a maneuver by the CHP and that is what led to what we are seeing right now. We mentioned that this was a kidnapping suspect and as we mentioned earlier, the information we are receiving from Long PD is that at least at some point, the kidnapping victim was also in the vehicle and at some point the kidnapping victim was able to get out of the vehicle and that person we know doesn't want to press charges or do anything of that nature, so it's definitely something like that. Interesting dynamic as to what led up to this whole thing, but now CHP has a standoff on their hands and a suspect they need to apprehend, as you can see those CHP officers on the left side of your screen. uh, trying to come up with a plan, uh, they're communicating, they're meeting and they're figuring out what are some of the next steps that they may need to take to try to put an end to this and open up this Highway 91.

Yeah, and we don't see it anymore. the K9, so I guess, what are some of the options that we've discussed a little bit, but in these situations what are some of the options that you might be looking at right now? Chris, well. I mean, at some point, if they can, you know, if they can get some visibility into their disposition, they will prepare or could prepare to basically rush in on whatever side of the vehicle they know it's in, they know they have shields, they have you to you. they know the ability to get close as an arrest team in a unit, they can take a group of officers with shields and basically take him out if they see him and can get to him, they could physically take him out, especially with the help of a canine unit again, that assumes it's safe for everyone involved when you have a lot of broken glass like that, you know?

It gives you a second pause to release the dog and that's another thing when it comes to the K9, you hate to see them run run. through broken glass in these situations, but again I've seen it before, it's just not ideal, so they have, you know, they have tools, but they don't have the tools that a SWAT team has, etc. at some point if they don't feel comfortable with the Intel they have and by the way they have some capability. I talked before about the technology on that CHP helicopter, that CHP helicopter doesn't have it. technology like LAPD that I mentioned, but it has IR technology, uh, and that gives them some visibility and what their position may be and what other materials could be on the back of that fan.

It's a different technology, but still. Very nice technology that gives them some Intel that at least we don't have, so they have a little more resources to work with than what we're seeing here, but now they see it as an insurance policy, an additional CH CHP Cruiser that now you have. I blocked it in case there was any hope of it reversing, frankly I think that vehicle was finally finished, but now it certainly has the added obstacle of a cruiser that has blocked it, so it won't be able to do so. move that vehicle, anything you do will probably be on foot, whether yousurrender peacefully on foot with your hands up or if this plays out any other way that's the big question wow and I mean two we see it and this probably wouldn't be very smart of you but um and the reason The reason I was asking a little bit earlier about what's happening on the driver's side is if you wanted to try to jump and then jump into that vegetation there, I mean, the moment you did that.

Obviously you know, I don't think I'll make it, but yeah, exactly, well, then that's a possibility and then it would turn into a foot chase. But here comes the arrest team that I just talked about, just a couple of minutes ago, they are. assembling a unit, two officers leading the way as they march toward the vehicle, weapons drawn showing Shields what they're probably going to do here is put that pillow down and maybe even take off the tire and then you'll see them. Back up a little if that gives you better visibility, so the first step is to move that cardboard out of the way.

So what's up there, guys, that's not, those aren't hands, yeah, you don't see his hands, so you're going to take out that cardboard and then maybe even that sheet, there's the sheet, the sheet is stuck in the door, but. there goes the sheet, there goes the cardboard and we will see, you will see the shields that block the blockage, the suspect is trying to put that sheet back inside the vehicle, but basically he hides under the sheet, he hides under that blanket, so they tried to throw. If they were able to get him out of the passenger side door but he's still holding on tight to that sheet and unfortunately they didn't get that cardboard out, they're probably going to give him another chance and if you think about it, if he repeats what we just saw, this was probably the one.

Smartest possible move they could have made. As they try to approach the vehicle, they feel fairly confident that he is in the passenger seat and know if they could try to remove those obstacles. that cardboard, the blanket, the tire and then the game starts from scratch again, yeah, I definitely see a lot of movement there from the chase suspect here, and definitely a coordinated movement by CHP to come in and try and grab some of that stuff, he obviously tried to put the sheet back on, but the hope is that maybe this move will try to encourage the SU ECT to change his mind about things and let him know that CHP is pretty serious. like they're moving and they'll try again in due time and it's very interesting that they stopped that CHP vehicle behind the van to try to add an extra layer of security to try to prevent it.

You know, even with the damaged tires as they are to try to prevent any further movement of this truck, but you know that real barricade suspect has the sheet up, the cardboard box up and we know there's that spare tire. still underneath, uh, he kind of blocks everything out, so it'll be interesting to see, as we see continuous movement there from that suspicious guy looking up, uh, over the top of the sheet. I think I see kind of a face there, um like We see that CHP continues to weigh this, although it seems like it's a good sign that the suspect continues to communicate with CHP officers if the suspect was not communicating, if he was silent, that it would raise the stakes but at least at this point he is communicating so the officers know at least they can talk to him and see where his mind is at as we see these officers coming in for another round yes communicative communication is good but without power.

Seeing their hands, the risk is just as high, so here they are doing a second try and I imagine the first thing they'll look for this time might be that cardboard box that will be the easiest to get out, uh, and then that blanket . We'll also see if they can get this debris out of the passenger side window. Here comes the blanket and now you can at least see the inside of the vehicle. Presumably it's locked, so they can't open it. up, but now they have a lot more visibility in that front seat, there's a taser pointing towards the back, it looks like it's retreated to the back of the truck, it's retreated to the back of the truck, that passenger side looks like empty and here comes the sliding door, now the officers on both sides, the driver's side and the passenger's side, are being rushed by those officers and now they are in a position where they can quickly remove the suspect from the side compartment, there There is the door and there you see. the suspect slides right out the door onto the ground and now they're going to tackle him to the ground, hold him down and take him into custody and finally bring this to its proper conclusion, after a prolonged standoff, his second standoff with authorities today.

It's time for a dramatic ending here in the middle of Highway 91, well, Chris Christy, uh, I'm just in time, this is Mark Brown. Timing is everything. Mark finally came in and was able to get up on the desk here and watch. unfolded together with you and with everyone watching our broadcast here, the drama finally unfolds and

ends

in a way where everyone is safe, they didn't have to employ the dog, they didn't have to use unnecessary force in this. individual they brought him in just as you described uh and uh there were a lot of people involved in that you saw the different ones that you have uh CHP here and it seems that they were the ones that did it um looking at their uniforms and everything that the ones with the stripes, uh in the side of course they are CHP officers so uh that's the one that managed to do this yeah he's fighting with them but you notice that they're using restraint and they're trying to keep his limbs under control uh and in doing so he they protect themselves and him they're checking the van to see if there might be anyone else there this started, of course, with a report of a kidnapping that uh and and it's ended uh pretty, pretty sure uh apparently no one was kidnapped that we know of, no There is no one in the truck and now, after a long standoff on Highway 91, the traffic must be tremendous.

Could you show us what awaits drivers on the west side of 91? highway, so traffic has been turned around. Mark here on Highway 91 the on-ramp is now being used as an exit ramp and this detour has been in effect for the better part of at least 20 or 30 minutes so a lot of traffic on Highway 91 is has eased on the surface streets, but that hasn't made anyone's day better. You can see that the jam is now traffic, Jem, who was on Highway 91, has eased up, but now it's still visible. There is a lot of residual traffic on the other side of Highway 710 because they are being diverted from this Highway 91 completely and that is where you see the bumper to bumper traffic on the west side leading to Highway 710.

Keep in mind it all started on the 710 freeway, which was completely closed for about an hour because the same guy refused to get out of the van around 3:00 this afternoon, so it's been a wild day here in this part of town , but finally, as you say, a peaceful resolution has been reached, okay, what a disaster it has been and that disaster will end soon. They want this freeway open and running because, in fact, this is Southern California, we rely on our freeways to move people and commerce and all kinds of things and people want to get home, so they go What to do, they are going to clear this up as soon as they can, they are going to catch this suspect low, low, low. control and in custody uh my question is if there could be something else with him because they haven't stood him up yet uh he's not standing he's still on the ground and uh there are people uh tending to him that we don't know If he's completely, he has to be completely subject right now, but if he's still putting up a fight, we don't know, uh, oh, it looks like they're going to stand him up now, hopefully, we'll see that's likely, yeah, he's still there.

He's still kicking, he's struggling and I think in all likelihood I suspect that he'll need medical attention in the end either way, so there's probably an ambulance already on the scene, if not on the way to get here. treat this suspect and probably get him to the hospital if he's injured, but I just have to point out when you think about all the different ways the CHP could have resolved this and you know that with the tools at their disposal, the next of kin are on the list, it was so expertly executed with officers ambushing both sides of the vehicle ready no matter what happened and they were quickly able to unlock the vehicle so they could open the passenger side door and sure enough they were able to get him out of there and be done with it . as quickly and expertly as possible, so it was just a great job by these officers.

I wonder if they train specifically to remove barricaded people from vehicles, since their patrol area and responsibility is highways and highways, if this is something they train. to and uh they were able to execute because of some prior knowledge, they absolutely are, they absolutely are these CHP officers are state police officers that go through extensive training for situations like this, you know, we're a little bit spoiled here in the metropolitan area where there are many other agencies that can help with SWAT teams and any other type of technology you can imagine, but there are many other situations and many other parts of the State of California where you don't have all those tools and it is up to the officers on the scene to bring situations like this to a safe conclusion and sure enough, the training paid off today, so what we're seeing now is a stretcher being purchased and brought in from that ambulance, uh, nearby, uh, I suspect his arms, it seems that his arms and legs are chained.

He is face down on that stretcher. He's no longer fighting, but he's clearly affected in some way and probably under the influence as well. She witnessed between him lighting up in the driver's seat and his behavior. He certainly seems to be very unstable, but yes, it's definitely unusual to see him face down like that, but there probably must be a medical reason for it. Well, they quickly put him in his place. side that's what you do when someone is in that kind of situation, oh, look at Mark, look at that one, look at that one, look at that wire that's a Taser wire.

Mark, was Tasered before being removed from that vehicle. Then a Taser was deployed, so he was subdued. He didn't knock him unconscious because he saw him fighting, but he did speed up the arrest here. that will automatically request medical attention once you are placed and obviously increases paperwork as well. They're going to put him in, he's still on the stretcher and they have his body positioned on his side, which is a lesson that, excuse me, law enforcement has learned over the years, if you have someone with their hands and feet Tied up, maybe even like a pig, if you put them face down it puts too much pressure on their heart, they have to lay them on their side to allow them to breathe properly and not put so much strain on their heart, these are all things that have been learned unfortunately, as suspects have died in custody after being restrained and were combative, so this is a procedure they are working on here. why haven't they taken him yet they're going to secure him to the stretcher because he's been combative so they're going to put him in that ambulance and take him to where he needs to go, which is to get medical attention uh and uh maybe an evaluation uh then it looks like this is over and the hope is that they can get him out, clean up the vehicle and clean up the scene so that highway 91 can reopen again the backup that was generated by this, it was moved back a little at an exit as the people that they got are being rerouted off the freeway, but there's still a lot of backup before that closure, as you can imagine, so there's a lot of people that are having to deal with this and wait and a lot of things aren't moving uh those trucks those uh big uh those 18 wheelers that are there uh a lot of Commerce are not moving and it's been that way for quite some time so there's light at the end of the tunnel so to speak for the people waiting on Highway 91 if they were Waiting for someone to get home, wait, you'll be able to clear this up, hopefully, fairly soon, there doesn't seem to be a secondary.

An investigation is underway, which is hopefully another good sign. There's no one in the van other than the suspect himself, so hopefully they'll clear this up before long. He's still on that stretcher and he's not in the ambulance yet, but yeah. He makes you wonder what. your condition is and what kind of treatment you're receiving, but in any case, once you finally get to an ambulance, it seems like they're just scrambling to secure you, frankly, but in any case, once you get back to that ambulance, at the very least , you hope they can open at least one or two lanes of westbound traffic on the 91.

You know people who are just now getting to the 710, where there's a whole line of them. Those who have been stuck in traffic all afternoon at least have the 710 to get off, but the cars that they saw a moment ago getting off on that on-ramp and using that off-ramp to get off the freeway, those people havebeen here for hours since this all started, so they are in the most unfortunate position, but hopefully they will be able to reopen the highway here soon, and now that the officers have secured him to the stretcher, they are now lifting the stretcher and now he is heading towards that ambulance and it's on their side just like you mentioned mhm, that's for his safety, for his health, um and uh, he'll be detained at the hospital where we assume he's going, yeah, just once again, amazing when you think about how that we have witnessed from the beginning of this terrible experience after the afternoon, I mean a wild chase that ended, I mean, he was on all four tires at the beginning, at the end of the first chase, all four tires were already exhausted and then there.

There was an extensive standoff in which the SWAT team was eventually turned around and the decision was made by whoever was in the vehicle and exited the vehicle. They originally called her a victim and then stopped using that terminology, but the person who was in the vehicle with him basically said no. He didn't want to press charges and it seemed like, you know, my polite guest, some kind of domestic dispute ended with the police basically letting him go and then starting to move after a seemingly endless standoff. and then a low-speed chase took them to Highway 91, where he stopped and then they all went home.

The Long Beach police returned to base, they turned the SWAT team around, the chase was called off and they dropped them off on the side of the 91. Freeway and just as we were about to leave the scene, I think around 5: 00, perhaps a little after the chase resumed. The California Highway Patrol approached the vehicle and he refused to get out, the chase began again at low speed. Chase without the tires finally ends in a slow maneuver in the pits and then all this drama plays out well into the 8:00 hour, here it is good, Chris Christie, thanks for your report and my thanks and congratulations to Gabe Santos Michelle Fiser. who were here before I arrived and your coverage of this very strange chase, just another strange night in Southern California, thanks for watching at home our broadcast and ABC7 will be broadcast on ABC7 and just a few minutes while the NFL draft continue here. on ABC7 thank you all for watching and we'll see you on the air in just a few minutes and