A suspect in an attempted homicide in Alhambra led authorities on a lengthy pursuit Monday that ended in Costa Mesa, then bailed out of a vehicle and hopped over a fence in a bid to evade capture. But he soon was surrounded and arrested.
Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies in Bellflower spotted a gray sedan sought in connection with a pair of shootings that had taken place two days earlier, Alhambra police said in a news release Monday. When they attempted to stop the car, its driver took off.
The pursuit terminated at the 300 block of Hamilton St, where two suspects were taken into custody without incident and a third suspect with a handgun fled by jumping a fence.
— Costa Mesa Police (@CostaMesaPD) February 28, 2022
Aerial footage broadcast live at about 12:30 p.m. showed the sedan speeding along highways and surface streets, occasionally ignoring red lights and narrowly avoiding collisions with other drivers. The car eventually stopped in a residential area along the 300 block of Hamilton St. in Costa Mesa.
Two people in the car surrendered to authorities, but a third who was armed with a handgun hopped a nearby fence and fled, police said. Officers canvased the area and managed to find and arrest him at about 1 p.m.
A handgun and baseball cap were seen on the ground near a man who was in handcuffs Monday in footage recorded by OC Hawk. He was lying on his back next to the gate of a playground and surrounded by law enforcement agents, then examined by paramedics and placed onto a stretcher that was loaded into an ambulance.
The identities of the three who were taken into custody and any charges they may be booked on suspicion of were not immediately released. The car they were in had been spotted in surveillance footage recorded in the area of two shootings in Alhambra on Saturday.
The first was reported at about 7:30 a.m. near Edgewood Avenue and Valley Boulevard, police said. Responding officers spotted evidence of a car-to-car shooting, and then found an abandoned vehicle and signs of even more gunfire about six blocks down the street near Marengo Avenue.
The owner of the abandoned vehicle was a victim in the shootings, and contacted by officers at a nearby residence, Alhambra police Sgt. Michael Montano said. That person was not wounded. Information regarding why they might have been targeted or any connection to the person arrested Monday was not immediately made public.