Kidnapping Suspect Arrested At Mother's Palmdale Apartment After Wild Chase, Standoff
LANCASTER (CBSLA) — A kidnapping suspect was finally captured in Palmdale early Friday morning following a high-speed pursuit and standoff that dragged on for hours after the man barricaded himself inside his mother's apartment.
The incident began at around 4:50 p.m. Thursday when Los Angeles County Sheriff's deputies responded to a 911 call about a possibly armed man who may have committed a kidnapping.
The suspect was located behind the wheel of a Toyota Prius, along with a female passenger, and a pursuit ensued in the 2000 block of West Avenue H-8 in Lancaster.
The chase, which reached speeds of nearly 100 miles per hour, wound its way up into Kern County, before returning back to the Lancaster area, where the California Highway Patrol also got involved.
The Prius eventually exited the 14 Freeway in Palmdale and made its way onto surface streets.
A CHP officer was then T-boned by an uninvolved driver during the chase. There were no serious injuries reported.
At one point, deputies attempted a dramatic PIT maneuver in a cul-de-sac at Silk Tree Lane and East Avenue R-3. However, after a patrol car slammed into the Prius, sending it careening into a parked car in a home's driveway, the suspect was somehow still able to escape out of the cul-de-sac.
"And the suspect car ran into the mailbox and the car over there, but it flipped around so he was able to come out...and the sheriff's car wouldn't start," a witness told CBSLA.
The Prius drove into the Sierra View Gardens apartment complex in the 37000 block of 20th Street E. Two people — a male driver and female passenger — jumped out of the car.
The woman immediately surrendered to LASD deputies while the suspect, who may have been armed with a shotgun, ran into the apartment complex and into his mother's apartment, the sheriff's department said.
The woman was taken to a local hospital with unknown injuries. There was no word regarding whether she was the kidnapping victim.
"She was just shaken up really bad. She sat on the fire hydrant and really shaken up and I think somebody contacted her family members and everything," said witness Diana Martin.
According to LASD, shots were fired at the start of the standoff, though it was not immediately clear what led up to the gunfire. Nobody was injured.
"It was scary. We saw the police shooting at him and he's firing off a patio or balcony or something," Martin said.
During the standoff, another man surrendered to deputies, climbing down from the balcony of one of the apartment units. He was taken into custody without incident. LASD later said that man was a person of interest, but not the main suspect from the pursuit.
Just before 9 p.m., the suspect's mother left the apartment unit and told deputies that he was the only one left inside.
At around 12:20 a.m. Friday, the suspect was finally taken into custody. He was not identified.
The circumstances of the kidnapping case which prompted the pursuit were not immediately known.