Bizarre Police Pursuit From OC To IE Ends With Driver Fleeing On Foot, Passenger Jumping Into Unwitting Couple's Car
JURUPA VALLEY (CBSLA) — A driver was placed in police custody Monday afternoon after taking police on a three-hour, high-speed pursuit from Anaheim to Riverside County, heading into oncoming traffic at times, with one of his passengers making a bizarre attempt to flee in a different vehicle.
The pursuit began shortly after noon when an Anaheim police officer determined a dark Toyota Camry had a stolen license plate, City News Service reported.
The vehicle got on the eastbound 91 Freeway, reaching up to 100 miles per hour. The driver got onto the El Cajon Pass in Riverside County before turning back towards Riverside proper.
Police twice attempted PIT maneuvers on surface streets with no success.
The male driver ended up in the Jurupa Valley, where police said he changed his shirt, exited the car and ran into a parking lot adjoining an industrial building.
A female passenger then exited the vehicle and got into another dark sedan that happened to be coming out of the parking lot.
A freelance photographer who was covering the pursuit recorded the moment he warned the driver of the second vehicle to stop. "No, that's not us," a confused woman in the front passenger seat told the stringer. "I don't know who she is," the male driver can be heard saying.
The woman from the first vehicle then jumped out of the back seat. Stringer Robert Bermudez then yelled at the woman, "Give up. Lay on the ground right here!" to which the woman eventually complied. Bermudez pointed out the woman, who had surrendered, to police.
Bermudez said he didn't intend to stop the woman, but that he just happened to see her before police did.
"They're telling me, 'We don't know this girl, we're giving her a ride. We don't know her. We don't want anything to do with this,'" Bermudez told CBS2 News. "And so, at that point, I think it got so uncomfortable, that the female jumped out of the car."
The second vehicle took off and was later stopped in Colton, CNS reported.
The driver of the first vehicle was apprehended at around 4 p.m. Police said the suspect appeared to be under the influence of drugs, and he was taken to a local hospital as a precaution.
