Alleged thief crashes into South Pasadena officer at end of chase, shocking video shows

SOUTH PASADENA, Calif. (KABC) -- A dramatic chase of a burglary suspect in South Pasadena ended in a crash on Friday afternoon.

Exclusive video obtained by Eyewitness News shows the suspect trying to smash his way past South Pasadena police in a stolen car before officers turned the tables with a T-bone takedown.

"Stop the car! Now! Stop the car!" officers can be heard yelling at the suspect in the surveillance video. "Shoot! Shoot! Shoot m------------, shoot!" the foul-mouthed suspect yelled back before making a run to escape.

Police brought it all to a crashing end, slamming into the suspect as he tried to blow past officers in the normally quiet neighborhood.

"[I was] extremely surprised. The odds of it happening right in front of your house are extremely low, so very surprising," said witness Stefan Kazachki.

The chaos unfolded around 4:30 p.m. after a burglary in the neighborhood. Police spotted the wanted thief, and the pursuit was on.

"I heard the police sirens and the cars kind of going in the street. This is a very quiet cul-de-sac, so any sort of noise is kind of heard by all the neighbors," Kazachki said.

Police blocked the driver in when he suddenly slammed the car in reverse, crashing into another vehicle parked on the street. He then raced toward the officers, stopping just short of a head-on collision. He backed up once again, locked in a face-off with police.

The driver then raced to the end of the cul-de-sac, with two officers following behind and one remaining, blocking the road.

That's when the suspect suddenly came racing down the street, and the officer slammed into him, ending the neighborhood pursuit.

AIR7 video from after the chase shows the stolen car and a patrol vehicle damaged, with airbags deployed.

The driver was taken into custody, and residents were grateful the drama didn't take an even more dangerous turn.

"The police didn't shoot. Nobody shot. I don't think anybody was killed or even seriously hurt, so that's good. I wouldn't want to be that person," Kazachki said.

It didn't appear that the officer was hurt in the collision.