CBS News reports that on Thursday, a man driving a white pickup truck led Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department deputies on a chase through the streets of Compton that lasted nearly four-and-a-half hours.
On Thursday, March 9, deputies attempted to conduct a traffic stop of the truck. Instead of pulling over as directed by the LACSD, he took off.
Several LACSD units attempted to perform PIT maneuvers on the truck. The driver continued to evade the law enforcement officers, sometimes driving over the center median of surface streets and going against the traffic flow.
The chase continued to the intersection of Poplar Street and Wilmington Avenue at a traffic signal, where the suspect driver came to a stop. LACSD deputies blocked off traffic with their cruisers and attempted to box him in.
It was there that deputies lobbed several pepper canisters into the pickup truck. The driver, however, refused to get out of his vehicle and even threw one of the canisters back at the deputies. Instead, he backed his truck into one of the LACSD cruisers and then over the center median. Deputies had also laid a spike strip down, but the suspect managed to avoid it without damaging his tires.
During the chase, air units reported that the suspect driver was seen inhaling what appeared to be nitrous oxide from a white balloon. One final PIT maneuver by deputies spun the pickup truck around and stopped the vehicle. The suspect attempted to flee on foot but was apprehended by deputies and arrested.
A spokesperson for the LACSD told reporters at a press conference that the driver is facing charges of DUI and assaulting a peace officer with a deadly weapon. Authorities have not yet released his identity.
A family member told CBS that the man’s mother had recently passed away, and he was acting out of grief.
