Authorities have arrested a man near Los Angeles after a six-hour police chase through Southern California.
NBC Los Angeles reports that the chase started at roughly 7 p.m. on February 3 following a report of a man with a gun. Police attempted to pull the man over in a routine traffic stop but he refused to get out of the car and fled the scene.
Whereas police chases often involve high speeds, the driver of the Chevrolet Malibu drove quite slowly throughout the chase. Speaking with the local media, Los Angeles Police Department Sgt. Juan Garcia said authorities did not perform a PIT maneuver on the car due to the report of him being armed.
WATCH LIVE: How slow is this slow-speed chase? Even the car's tire passed the pursuit vehicle. Now on hour SIX of this bizarre police chase, as it moves through Ontario. https://t.co/2BdWlEuq43 pic.twitter.com/BV7kjdp5XY
— NBC Los Angeles (@NBCLA) February 3, 2021
“Our policy generally prohibits us from conducting a PIT maneuver on somebody we believe is armed because it puts us at a disadvantage when we flip that car around,” Garcia said. “Now he’s face-to-face with us, and it is pretty unsafe.”
Garcia added that in his 20 years with the department, he has never heard of another chase stretching on for six hours. It eventually came to an end near Ontario, California.
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NBC Los Angeles notes that the car lost its front left tire at around the four-hour mark but not even that stopped the driver. For two more hours, he drove slowly down a handful of freeways near Los Angeles and only decided to stop when the front left wheel fell off entirely, leaving the car resting on its hub.
The man , who has two outstanding warrants for burglary, ultimately surrendered and was arrested on suspicion of felony evading.