If you think your Monday was rough, spare a thought for the guy who decided the Pacific Ocean was a better option than dealing with the Los Angeles Police Department. Spoiler alert: it wasn’t. What started as a foot pursuit near Will Rogers Beach turned into a maritime standoff that lasted about as long as a decent oil change appointment, minus the free coffee.
The suspect, wanted on felony charges, ditched his pursuers on land and made a beeline for the water off Sunset and Pacific Coast Highway, reported KTLA 5. Anyone who has ever driven that stretch of PCH knows it is gorgeous scenery, but it is not exactly built for a quick escape route unless you happen to be part fish. This guy apparently thought otherwise and swam out from shore, putting himself squarely in the path of the Los Angeles County lifeguards instead of the officers he was trying to avoid.
For close to an hour and a half, the man treaded water a few hundred feet off the coastline while lifeguards worked to box him in using paddleboards. It is not every day you see a felony suspect get cornered by guys in red trunks instead of a patrol car, but that is exactly what unfolded. Watching it happen felt a little like watching a slow-motion pit maneuver, except the racetrack was the Pacific and the car was a very tired human being.
Eventually one of the lifeguards hopped off his board and grabbed hold of the suspect directly, with two more jumping in to help keep him afloat. From there, the team began working him closer to a sheriff’s boat stationed nearby, and the whole operation wrapped up with the suspect taken into custody and transported back toward Hollywood.
A Pursuit That Took An Unexpected Turn
Most chases that make the news involve tires, asphalt, and a helicopter overhead. This one started that way too, with the suspect leading LAPD on a foot pursuit before making the split-second decision to bail into the ocean. It is worth noting that jumping into open water to escape law enforcement rarely works out the way people picture it in their head.
The current, the cold, and the sheer distance back to shore tend to do a lot of the work that officers otherwise would.
The Lifeguards Did The Heavy Lifting
Once the chase moved offshore, it stopped being a police matter in the traditional sense and became a rescue and containment operation. The lifeguards on scene used their boards to slowly close the gap, essentially penning the suspect in rather than letting him drift further out.
That kind of teamwork does not happen by accident. It takes real coordination, and in this case it kept everyone, including the suspect, from a much worse outcome.
Said one comment: “Fantastic job by the lifeguards. I don’t think it’s their job to apprehend suspects. It was smart to let him tire himself out before intervening.”
How It All Wrapped Up
By the time the suspect was pulled toward the sheriff’s boat, he had been in the water for roughly ninety minutes and was described as fatigued from the waist down.
He was taken into custody without further incident and transported back toward Hollywood to face the original felony charge.