The suspect is in custody after leading Los Angeles police on a car chase in the San Fernando Valley Saturday afternoon that ended with one driver dead and two others injured.
Officers spotted a stolen white Mercedes near the intersection of Vanowen Street and Corbin Avenue in Winnetka around 1:45 p.m., Los Angeles Police Department Officer Mike Lopez said. As officers pursued the vehicle, the driver of the Mercedes accelerated away and a pursuit began, Lopez said.
While fleeing, the driver crashed into a white Tesla that was traveling west on Saticoy Street, police said. The Tesla then crashed into two other cars.
Police said the suspect, a 42-year-old man, was taken into custody and taken to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. The driver of the Tesla, a 40-year-old woman, was pronounced dead at the scene. Another woman in the car that was hit by the Tesla was treated at the scene, and a man in the other car was taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
Police have not released the suspect’s name but said they will do so once he is arrested.
Nearly half of the people injured or killed during police pursuits in Los Angeles since 2018 were bystanders, according to Los Angeles Police Department data released last year. Los Angeles Police Department officers have been involved in at least 4,203 pursuits since 2018, according to findings submitted to the Police Commission. About a quarter (1,032) resulted in crashes resulting in injury or death.
Almost half of these injury accidents injured people who were not involved in the chase, resulting in 496 injuries and nine deaths. Meanwhile, the report said 462 suspects were injured during this period, and five of them died.
Los Angeles Police Department policy allows officers to initiate pursuits in response to suspected felonies or certain misdemeanors, such as reckless driving or drunk driving.
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