RYAN HAGEN
News Assistant
A high-speed car chase ended in Malibu with an unidentified man seriously injuring himself before officers pried him out of his pickup.
The chase began shortly before 8:30 a.m., on Thursday, Nov. 2 when Ventura police attempted to stop a car for unsafely passing on the right and ended two hours later with the suspect in serious condition on Surfside Drive about a mile north of Zuma Beach.
The pursuit covered 30 miles, but the confrontation did not end when the suspect was cornered.
“We trapped him in a cul-de-sac, and then negotiated for about an hour,” said Public Affairs Officer David Keith of the Oxnard Police Department, which handled the arrest. The truck raced at speeds of up to 110 miles per hour for more than an hour before it suddenly turned off the highway and was forced to stop near the corner of Surfside Drive and Sea Star Drive, about five miles from Pepperdine. The SWAT team then waited for the man surrendered, but was forced to act when he put his life in danger shortly before 11 a.m.
“He was not willing to come out of the car, and finally he got a knife, or something sharp, it was hard to tell, and slashed himself across the chest,” Keith said.
Officers then rushed in to stop the man and quickly airlifted him to the UCLA medical center, where he was in serious condition when officers last received word Thursday night, Keith said.
Police will not release the name of the 46-year-old Oxford man until his family has been notified.
His behavior was unpredictable, according to Sergeant Jack Richards, public information officer for the Ventura Police Department.
“He was making suicidal threats,” he said.
When Ventura officers on motorcycles signaled for the pickup to pull over, it instead turned around in the driveway of La Quinta Inn in Ventura before it pulled onto Highway 101 and began speeding.
The driver turned onto Pacific Coast Highway, and three cars from the Oxnard Police Department took over when the chase entered their jurisdiction.
“We can hand it off, and it becomes a fresh crime for them as long as the person keeps running,” Richards said.
The initial traffic violation will be ignored in sentencing, and the man will likely be charged with eluding law enforcement and reckless driving, according to police.
11-09-2006
