The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and the California Highway Patrol were engaged in a hot pursuit of a suspect driving recklessly through Los Angeles County on Sunday night, which eventually ended after the suspect escaped near the Los Angeles International Airport (LAX).
CBS News released the footage of the entire chase on YouTube. The suspect in a white sedan was being chased by police cruisers for nearly an hour before police decided it was too dangerous to take him out due to the traffic around them. The cruisers attempted PIT maneuvers multiple times but failed to stop the sedan.
The chase began in East Los Angeles around 9 p.m., when the driver “fled from Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department deputies on surface streets” through Downey and Norwalk areas. Meanwhile, the SkyCal helicopter overhead kept the spotlight on the vehicle.
The suspect swerved through traffic at around 80 mph and sped through red lights, which prompted the police to back off with the aim of de-escalating the situation. They decided to rely on SkyCal until the situation was safer to begin a fresh pursuit.
However, nearly an hour into the pursuit at 9:50 p.m., the white sedan had driven into the area near LAX, forcing SkyCal to end its pursuit, likely because the helicopter wasn’t allowed to enter the airport’s airspace at that moment. Footage showed SkyCal’s spotlight stopped following the suspect. CBS’s presenters questioned whether the police had officially ended the chase when the spotlight was turned off:
“It’s also a little very dark in this area. But it’ll be interesting to see what this driver does next. It looks like CHP has definitely pulled back, if not all the way off.
“They’re solely in tracking mode. I’m not even seeing the helicopter spotlight now.
“Is it possible that they pulled off altogether?”
Dave Avila, a retired LAPD helicopter pilot, answered via phone:
“They just may have gone into the monitoring mode where they’re just going to sit back. You know, we used to call it de-escalation. I think they’ve got some new terms now, but that might just be what they’re doing now. You know, just pull the black and whites off.”
Dave was then asked how such dangerous pursuits are handled these days, especially since the suspect’s details are with the police department. Dave said:
“That’s just the way it is now, as much as I hate to say it. Before, we would never let a suspect go. That’s a good theory because it exactly happened that way.
“Hopefully we’re just monitoring it and we’ll just keep an eyeball on them and see what happens with them. You know, and like you said, they have the plate number. They’re going to run the plate.
“They’re going to talk to the registered owner and see if they still own the vehicle.”
