They may end up being the ones who got away.
A wild police pursuit Sunday was already notable for its dramatic twists and turns. Authorities say two suspects carjacked a truck in Lancaster and opened fire on its owner before the police gave chase. In the hours that followed, they stole two more vehicles before ending up in a Chevrolet Silverado under a freeway overpass in Boyle Heights, shielded from the police and TV helicopters overhead.
Then things got really strange. The two suspects appear to have escaped in another car with the help of accomplices, according to law enforcement sources. Three days later, they are still at large.
“It’s obvious that they were well versed on the region, the area,” said Art Acevedo, a former California Highway Patrol section chief who has decades of experience in pursuits. The suspects used tactics that Acevedo says are “completely aggressive, really reckless and highly dangerous.”
L.A. has long been obsessed with police pursuits, which are regularly televised across TV and the web. They have become the cornerstone of key cultural moments, led by the O.J. Simpson “slow speed” chase in 1994.
What happened in Boyle Heights might end up going into the annals of chase lore.
The vast majority of the time, such chases end with the suspect being captured, especially in high-profile incidents covered in real time on TV and online.
Over the years, pursuit suspects have tried to evade police by driving into parking garages or into Los Angeles International Airport, where there are flight restrictions for news choppers, or trying to run for it. Usually they fail, but not all the time.
A 2017 Los Angeles County civil grand jury report studied 421 police pursuits in the county that were reported to the California Highway Patrol and found that suspects were immediately apprehended in 67% of the chases, leaving 139 pursuits that did not end in an arrest. Fifty-nine involved vehicles escaping, and 47 ended because police abandoned the pursuit, usually for safety reasons.
Often, police find suspects later, using fingerprints and other means. In the case of the Sunday chase, police are processing forensics from the stolen vehicles including a loaded gun discovered to see whether that can link them to the suspects. But it’s unclear whether the weapon belonged to the men inside the vehicle.
In recent years, some agencies have changed their procedures — backing off chases in hopes of avoiding crashes that could injure innocent bystanders.
“We don’t want to injure or kill any innocent bystanders. That’s a greater tragedy than letting these guys get away,” said Ed Obayashi, a Northern California deputy and policing expert.
According to statistics presented to the police commission, the LAPD was involved in 1,116 pursuits in 2024 — the most chases since at least 2018. A little more than 30% resulted in some kind of crash. But the department has seen a decline this year.
Sunday’s chase began around 9:45 p.m. when two suspects stole a white Ford F-250 truck near 20th Street East and Lancaster Boulevard in Lancaster. The owner of the vehicle chased the suspects, but retreated when they opened fire, according to the Sheriff’s Department.
That was just the beginning of what became a long night for the suspects and law enforcement.
At one point, video shows, the men were driving the wrong way on a freeway with what appeared to be a shredded tire. The truck slowed, and the passenger jumped out, apparently attempting to carjack a white sedan whose driver quickly locked the doors.
The passenger got back in the Ford and they continued a short distance before they stopped again and tried to carjack a big rig. But the semi-truck’s driver threw it in reverse and the suspect abandoned the plan, jumping back into the Ford and continuing on.
Moments later, the suspect driving the Ford slammed the vehicle into the front of another semi-truck carrying milk. He ran to the passenger side of the massive rig and unlocked the door from the cracked window as the truck driver fled, video shows.
They drove the truck, which had “Got Milk” signs displayed on the mud flaps, along the 5 Freeway and 101 Freeway through Studio City, Hollywood and downtown and at times went onto surface streets.
Eventually, they stopped the truck at a 10 Freeway underpass near Alameda and Newton streets and ditched the big rig.
Video from the scene shows California Highway Patrol officers surrounding the massive vehicle before eventually realizing the driver and passenger are gone. Those watching at home thought maybe the suspects had made a quick escape.
But police were still on them.
Authorities say they jumped into a third vehicle — a white Chevrolet Silverado truck — before taking off to Boyle Heights. The suspects eventually abandoned the Silverado on Mission Road under the 101 Freeway underpass and escaped, officials said.
Obayashi, the policing expert, said it’s becoming more common for suspects to drive under overpasses — out of the view of helicopters — because the ground units are staying back for safety reasons, giving them a chance to make their escape.
“They go through the aqueducts or other exits and someone could be waiting for them,” Obayashi said, adding that police often don’t have time to react and set up a perimeter. “The lag time is such that that gives the suspects enough time to disappear,” he said.
Still, Acevedo said there’s a good chance police will be able to catch up with the suspects, even days later.
“There’s so much technology out there that’s capturing information that hopefully they’ll be able to find them,” he said.
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