Caught on video: Stolen Amazon delivery van leads wild chase after Riverside home invasion robberies

A Las Vegas man faces a string of criminal charges in court Wednesday after police say he carjacked an Amazon delivery van after two home invasion robberies in Riverside, then led officers on a wild car chase, hitting several cars in the process.

Quintin Jarnall Larks, 32, was arrested Monday evening at the end of the wild chase, in which an Amazon delivery van barreled through city streets, drove the wrong way, and hit at least three vehicles on the 60 Freeway.

The crime spree began Monday at about 5:15 p.m., when police were first called to reports of two home invasion robberies at a mobile home park in the 2900 block of Atlanta Avenue in Riverside. One of those robberies happened at the home of a 23-year-old woman who asked to remain anonymous because she fears Larks, who beat her viciously with a large piece of wood.

"I thought that I was going to die. Like, I'm gonna die, he keeps hitting my head," she said. 

She sustained cuts and bruises all over her body in the attack.

"When he was hitting me, he said, 'where's my pistol?'" she said. "When he said that, when he said that, I really -- I thought I was going to die."

Responding officers learned the suspect in the home invasion robberies just carjacked an Amazon delivery van, driving it away from the mobile home park, according to Riverside police.

Police tracked the stolen delivery van using GPS, as reports started pouring in of an Amazon van hitting parked cars along Arlington Avenue. Officers tried to stop the stolen vehicle at Arlington and Victoria avenues, but the suspect drove off, leading the officers in a pursuit through city streets toward the 60 Freeway, police said.

Video from the Riverside Police Department helicopter shows the van crossing the center median along Martin Luther King Boulevard and hitting a vehicle at Canyon Crest Drive just before getting onto the eastbound 60 Freeway. On the freeway, the van is seen hitting at least vehicles in motion, including a pickup truck. But that last collision left the delivery van inoperable, so the suspect jumped out of it just west of Day Street and ran across the westbound lanes, then tried to climb the vines on a tall barrier wall. Video shows the suspect failed to climb the wall, so he stumbled back to the freeway shoulder, where he surrendered.

Larks faces charges of attempted murder, home invasion robbery, carjacking, assault with a deadly weapon, reckless evading of police, and driving under the influence of drugs causing injury. He is being held on $1 million bail and is scheduled to appear in court Wednesday.

Neighbors in the mobile home park say they wish they could have done more.

"If it was me, I would have hung him by his heels and beat the s--- out of him. Because that poor girl is gonna be traumatized, totally traumatized for the rest of her life," a neighbor said.

The unidentified woman said she is thankful that the suspect realize her sister was also home, hiding in the bathroom.

"I just really hope that he stays in prison for the rest of his life," she said.