A wanted suspect turned a police pursuit through Los Angeles into a strange kind of endurance test, driving on a blown tire for nearly two hours while barely topping 30 mph the entire time. Even though it was a slow-speed chase, it still took police a good while to catch him.
The chase began Wednesday night after police identified the suspect as wanted for assault with a deadly weapon on a police officer, accused of striking a patrol car earlier in the week, ABC7 reported. The pursuit was captured from above as the suspect drove a white Lexus sedan at slow speeds with police cruisers trailing behind.
KTLA reported that the vehicle’s front passenger tire appeared damaged early on, limiting the chase to speeds of up to 30 mph. Officers never attempted a PIT maneuver, since the suspect was considered possibly armed and dangerous.
At one point, LAPD officials contemplated bringing in the department’s Metro Division and SWAT team, as the chase stretched past 90 minutes.
The Suspect Was Casually Smoking
Throughout the chase, the suspect can be seen in the car smoking what appeared to be cigarettes. Police cruisers and helicopters trailed him block after block. It gave the entire pursuit an odd tone.
The route the suspect took covered a lot of ground. ABC7 reported that the chase moved through the San Fernando Valley and Hollywood before continuing into the San Gabriel Valley, eventually looping back toward where it started.
It Ended on Foot
The suspect eventually ditched the car at Lankershim Boulevard and Oxnard Street in North Hollywood. He then went to a Roadway Inn and tried to run, but officers caught up to him on the second floor of the motel, KTLA reported.
He was taken into custody just after 11 p.m., bringing an end to an hour-and-a-half pursuit that lasted a lot longer than it should’ve.
Comments Had Some Concerns
Several commenters mentioned how casual the suspect seemed throughout the chase, with one joking that he was likely smoking his last cigarette for a long while, given what he was facing. Others raised bigger-picture questions, wondering why chases like this seem to happen in the LA area so often.
There were multiple high-speed chases in the last few days, but nothing like this.
Others were more critical of how the pursuit was handled, arguing that a chase moving this slow for over an hour should have been easy to end with a roadblock well before it dragged on as long as it did.