Gunfire, robots, K9 bring end to California police pursuit
DOWNEY, Calif. — A wild car chase during which a man leaned out of the window and blasted away at police with a handgun ended Friday with the man dragged wounded from the car.
There was no word on his condition as he was taken away in an ambulance.
Police and Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies began chasing the black Toyota Prius Friday afternoon in Downey, southeast of Los Angeles.
The high-speed chase stretched along a freeway and surface streets, during which video showed a passenger in a black T-shirt lean halfway out of the front passenger’s window and fire two-handed at pursuing patrol cars.
Video showed the man using a distinctive long-barreled revolver strikingly similar to one that was used to kill a Downey liquor store owner on Tuesday night.
Gurpreet Singh, 44, of Cerritos, was killed. Police had been seeking the gunman, who apparently didn’t take anything from the store.
The chase ended at about 3 p.m. in neighboring Vernon when the car became trapped in traffic and the passenger again fired. A car behind the Prius managed to back away, and police who pulled up in the next lane riddled the Prius with gunfire, shattering windows.
A short time later, a bloodied woman driver got out and surrendered. There was no immediate word on her condition.
The street near a railroad track was emptied, and sheriff’s SWAT teams were called in. Two armored vehicles blocked in the Prius.
During a standoff that lasted more than an hour, authorities rolled a robot up to the open driver’s door to peer inside the car and later fired two flash-bang grenades into the vehicle.
When the man inside didn’t get out, a police dog was sent in to pull at him. Only then did SWAT members drag the motionless man from the car.
He was strapped to a gurney and taken away by ambulance. There was no word on his condition.
