On July 23 at around 9 p.m., a patrol officer was driving in the area of Linden and Glenoaks avenues when s/he observed two vehicles traveling next to each other westbound Glenoaks at a high rate of speed that appeared to be involved in a speed contest. The officer was able to conduct a traffic stop on one of the involved vehicles and contacted the driver, identified as 21-year-old Mais Mkrtchyan of Glendale, regarding the violation. Mkrtchyan admitted to driving approximately 60-70 MPH telling the officer, “It was a stupid idea.”

The posted speed limit on this section of Glenoaks is 40 MPH. Mkrtchyan was subsequently arrested for reckless driving and his vehicle was impounded.

On July 27 at around 9 p.m., a patrol officer was working traffic enforcement in the area of Ruberta Avenue and Glenoaks Boulevard when he heard the sound of several vehicles racing at a high rate of speed on Glenoaks headed in his direction. The officer then observed three vehicles pass his location at a high rate of speed that appeared to be involved in an illegal speed contest. The third involved vehicle was behind the other two and appeared to be trying to catch up to them. As this vehicle did so, it changed lanes without signaling and cut off another driver, then accelerated as it passed vehicles on Glenoaks. As the officer attempted to catch up to the vehicles, this same third involved vehicle approached a red light at Allen Avenue, accelerated and then ran the red light passing another vehicle that was stopped for the red light. The officer was able to get this vehicle stopped and contacted the driver, identified as 18-year-old Erik Baghdasaryan of Glendale, regarding the violations. It should be noted that Baghdasaryan had a juvenile passenger in the vehicle.

Baghdasaryan was subsequently arrested for reckless driving and his vehicle was impounded.