Woman Who Led Officers On Chase With Car Full Of Dogs Dies After Jumping From Moving Bus, Police Say
ANAHEIM (CBSLA.com) — A La Habra woman who recently made headlines for leading police on a chase while intoxicated as officers tried to serve an arrest warrant related to dog abuse charges jumped off a moving bus and subsequently died, police said Tuesday.
Tiffini Kuuipo Tobe posted $50,000 bail on Feb. 16 and was released from jail, according to court records, which show the bond was forfeited Monday when she did not show up for a court hearing and was declared a fugitive.
According to Anaheim police Sgt. Daron Wyatt, the 48-year-old Tobe was already dead by last weekend.
Tobe dove head-first through an emergency window of the transit bus at about 6:30 a.m. last Thursday, Wyatt said.
She leapt onto a car and then got into a confrontation with a few men and an off-duty police officer who pulled up to the chaotic scene, he said.
She had apparently entered the bus through a back door, without paying a fare, authorities told CBS2's Dave Lopez.
The first-responding uniformed police officer activated a body-worn camera, which caught Tobe speaking coherently before appearing to have a heart attack and keeling over after she was handcuffed, Wyatt said.
Tobe suffered some sort of "obvious head injury," he said, noting that the bus was going about 20 to 25 mph when she tumbled out of it.
She was pronounced dead at 12:23 p.m. Friday, according to Lt. Mark Stichter of the Orange County Sheriff-Coroner's Department.
Because it was considered an in-custody death, the Orange County District Attorney's Office will investigate, Wyatt said.
Tobe was charged Jan. 20 with evading police while driving recklessly, a felony, as well as misdemeanor counts of driving under the influence of alcohol, resisting and obstructing an officer and driving without a valid license.
An arrest warrant was issued in January, when Tobe failed to appear in court for a pretrial hearing on misdemeanor charges of failing to provide veterinary treatment for a pit bull terrier that had to be euthanized, according to Malone.
California Highway Patrol officers saw Tobe asleep at the wheel on the shoulder of the Riverside (91) Freeway on Jan. 18 and attempted to rouse her.
Instead, Tobe, while intoxicated, punched the gas and led the officers on a chase that reached up to 90 mph, Malone alleged.
Officers twice had to use maneuvers to stop her vehicle, which spun around at one point. There were six dogs in the car, including a puppy, and four of them got loose when the chase ended, Malone said.
Tobe had two pit bulls under her care at the time of her arrest, despite a court order prohibiting her from having any animals, Malone said.
One of her dogs -- Alan -- had to be euthanized last February after he gnawed the skin off his own rear foot down to the bone due to an untreated illness, according to the prosecutor.
"The one paw that was most severely affected was basically self-amputated," Malone said earlier.
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