Burbank police shoot at suspect following possible kidnapping call

BURBANK, Calif. (KABC) -- Burbank police responding to a call about a possible kidnapping shot at a suspect following a brief chase early Thursday morning that ended in the suspect backing his car into a patrol vehicle.

Authorities said they received a call around 4:10 a.m. from a woman who said she had been kidnapped. She said she was walking home from a house party in South Los Angeles when a man drove up next to her and offered her a ride.

She told police that she accepted the ride and got into the car, but the man did not heed her directions to get off a specific freeway exit. That's when she said he placed a rag over her face and she blacked out.

The woman said the next thing she recalls is being out of the truck near some railroad tracks. She then walked to a nearby 99 Cent Store, where she called police. The store manager said the woman was crying and asking for help.

The woman gave police a detailed description of the man's car, a white Ford pickup truck, which officers tracked down traveling westbound on Victory Boulevard.

Officers tried to pull the car over, but the driver, later identified by police as 21-year-old Arthur Papiyan, did not yield. Instead, police said Papiyan drove off at a high rate of speed and blew through two red lights.

Papiyan eventually pulled over on Victory Boulevard near Pass Avenue, but he put his car into reverse and rammed into a police vehicle. That's when the officer-involved shooting occurred.

Police said a bullet penetrated the driver's seat but did not strike Papiyan's body. The force from the bullet did, however, cause a significant bruise, authorities said. Papiyan was treated at a local hospital and was booked into the Burbank City Jail for assault with a deadly weapon on a police officer.

The officers involved in the incident were not injured.

Papiyan was not booked on kidnapping charges because detectives have not been able to verify the woman's story. Investigators said the woman is not cooperating with police. She was arrested for two outstanding misdemeanor prostitution warrants.

The investigation is ongoing.