By Mary O’KEEFE
A three-hour vehicle pursuit on Monday night ended at Foothill Boulevard and La Crescenta Avenue in La Crescenta.
It started when the Los Angeles Police Dept. received a call about a stolen vehicle in the Pacoima area. Officers spotted the vehicle and attempted to make a traffic stop; however, the driver, a male adult suspected of stealing an Audi, took off leading LAPD on a chase that lasted about two hours through streets in various cities.
According to a LAPD Foothill Station spokesman, the vehicle pursuit began at Remick Avenue and Kamloops Street in Pacoima and continued through Pacoima, Sunland-Tujunga, Burbank and Glendale before coming to an end in La Crescenta.
Along the way the driver stopped for a moment to let a passenger out of the vehicle; that passenger was taken into custody by police.
The chase continued even after an unsuccessful PIT (pursuit intervention technique) and three well-placed spike strips. The driver continued the chase even when the vehicle’s tires flattened then fell off. The driver lost control along Foothill Boulevard in Sunland but continued to drive until finally coming to a stop on the south side of Foothill Boulevard just west of La Crescenta Avenue.
Glendale police and LA County Sheriff’s Dept. – Crescenta Valley Station assisted LAPD as they cordoned off the area closing several streets leading to Foothill Boulevard near La Crescenta Avenue. But that didn’t stop the many onlookers from watching the standoff who stood on the other side of the yellow caution tape.
The suspect barricaded himself inside the vehicle for over an hour. LAPD shot beanbag rounds into the vehicle that shattered the windows.
The suspect finally was taken into custody at about 9:28 p.m.