Good Samaritan helps end lengthy police chase, pinning in suspect on surface street
LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- Police chased a robbery suspect in the South Los Angeles and Harbor areas for more than an hour Thursday before he was stopped with the help of a good Samaritan who pinned him in on a congested surface street.
The chase started in the South LA area around 3 p.m. The suspect was driving a dark Mercedes sedan, with a multicolored flag flying out the open sunroof.
The suspect first headed south on the 405, then in the Harbor area switched over to the 110 and headed back northbound. At least seven LAPD units were seen trailing the vehicle.
The suspect was wanted in connection with a robbery - possibly of the vehicle itself - and was believed to be armed.
At one point the sedan slowed down on the 110 and the suspect threw an object out of the window which appeared to be a handgun. One of the units in the pursuit pulled over to retrieve the evidence.
The chase continued for more than an hour. Shortly after 4 p.m. the suspect exited the freeway and was driving on Crenshaw Boulevard, but ran into heavy afternoon traffic. At one point he drove onto a sidewalk to try to bypass the congestion, but he could not fully get past it.
As he hit a particularly crowded stretch, he tried to maneuver between vehicles but a gray pickup truck drove straight up to him, pinning the Mercedes grill-to-grill. With traffic all around, the Mercedes couldn't maneuver past the pickup. The pickup driver, apparently following police orders, exited his vehicle and walked away to safety.
Shortly after that, the suspect surrendered to police.
He put his hands out the window, and then with some difficulty climbed out the driver's side window headfirst, tumbling onto the asphalt and then proning out on the ground to be taken into custody.
