Suspected gunmen arrested in South Los Angeles chase
SOUTH LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- LAPD officers caught two suspects after a chase through South Los Angeles Wednesday afternoon that ended in a traffic collision. One suspect was believed to be armed with an assault rifle. One of the suspects was injured in the crash.
Police located suspects believed to be connected to a shooting that occurred last week at around 1:30 p.m. The suspects failed to yield and the chase began near the Imperial Courts complex in Watts.
The suspect vehicle, a silver Ford Flex, drove onto the 105 Freeway, then transitioned to the 110 before exiting at Manchester. The suspect vehicle drove the wrong way down Manchester, then collided head-on with a Toyota sedan at the San Pedro Street intersection.
RAW VIDEO: Suspect vehicle crashes in South LA intersection
The vehicle slowed to a stop as police officers pulled up. The driver of the vehicle came out of the vehicle slowly and dropped to the ground; he appeared to be injured. A second male came out of the passenger side, opened the rear of the vehicle per officers' orders, then dropped prone to the ground. Both males were taken into custody.
"A weapon was recovered from the freeway at the transition from the 105 westbound to the northbound 110 Freeway," said LAPD Captain Phillip Tingirides. "That weapon that we recovered is right where officers saw the suspects throw something from the vehicle. The weapon was in pieces.
"Because of some of the things we saw and things that were thrown out of the car, we believe there was a weapon, an assault rifle, and we've kind of confirmed that with what we found on the freeway," said Tingirides.
The weapon matches ammunition found inside the suspect vehicle, according to police.
One suspect was hospitalized with an ankle injury. The driver of the sedan was hospitalized with neck and back pain but was not seriously injured.
"There was a total of four or five traffic collisions related to this, none involving police vehicles," said Tingirides. "It looks like right now all involving this vehicle or other vehicles that crashed as a result of yielding to this car, who was just going through intersections."
