A suspect is in custody after leading Los Angeles police on a car chase Saturday afternoon that ended in the death of a driver and injuries to two other people in the San Fernando Valley.
Around 1:45 p.m., officers spotted a stolen white Mercedes near the intersection of Vanowen Street and Corbin Avenue in Winnetka, according to LAPD Officer Mike Lopez. As officers followed the car, Lopez said, the driver of the Mercedes sped off, sparking a chase.
As the driver fled, he struck a white Tesla that was heading west on Saticoy Street, police said. The Tesla then hit two other cars.
The suspect, a 42-year-old man, was taken into custody and transported to hospital. His injuries are not life-threatening, police said. The driver of the Tesla, a 40-year-old woman, was pronounced dead at the scene. Another woman in a car struck by the Tesla was treated at the scene, and a man in another car was taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
Police did not release the suspect’s name but said they would do so once he was arrested.
Nearly half of the people injured or killed in police chases in Los Angeles since 2018 were bystanders, according to LAPD data released last year. According to findings presented to the Board of Police Commissioners, LAPD officers have been involved in at least 4,203 chases since 2018; about a quarter (1,032) resulted in a collision causing injury or death.
Nearly half of these crashes injured people who were not involved in the chase – with 496 injured and nine killed. For comparison, 462 fleeing suspects were injured during that period, five of whom died, according to the report.
Under LAPD policy, officers are authorized to initiate a chase in response to a suspected crime or certain misdemeanors such as reckless or drunk driving.
