Wild high-speed chase from Fullerton to L.A. County ends as deputies open fire on suspect vehicle
Police tape flutters as a black car speeds down the street, pursued by officers in high-speed chase from Fullerton to Los Angeles County.
Fullerton police officers had chased the car through downtown and on streets lined with restaurants, but the car sped on and out of the city limits in the area of Vermont Street and Western Avenue.
The pursuit continued for nearly 20 minutes through the streets of the coastal city, with police officers saying they were “not chasing a car, we’re chasing an armed man,” according to the Los Angeles Times.
The chase reached speeds of 100 mph and came to a halt at an intersection on the east side of L.A. County just before 5:30 p.m.
Two female suspects inside the car were struck by a deputy’s patrol car, and the car sped away as deputies ran toward the vehicle.
Video posted on Twitter captured a moment as two officers and a man stand outside the white sedan, pointing weapons. They yell at the driver to stop.
“Drop the gun! Get on the ground!” one officer says.
At this point, an unmarked police car pulls up and opens fire on the sedan, striking the two women inside the vehicle and the driver.
The chase resumed for a little while, with police stopping their pursuit only when the car slowed down, and then sped off north on Eastern Avenue.
The officers who fired on the vehicle then followed the suspect car until it was out of view, the Times reported.
A Los Angeles County Fire Department paramedic and one of the women who were struck by the officer’s patrol car were taken by ambulance to a local hospital. The other was transported to a nearby hospital where she was treated for minor injuries.
More details were not immediately available.
A man who identifies himself as a Los Angeles Police Department employee told the Times that a sergeant was in the car and was not hurt. The man said he was not allowed to give a more specific account due to the ongoing police investigation.
The man told the newspaper that the vehicle had “a couple hundred thousand” dollars in it that was either for drugs or money.
A spokesman for the LAPD said the agency is investigating what happened. Police initially identified the victims as two juveniles,
