A Los Angeles police pursuit ended in dramatic fashion Friday afternoon with SWAT team members using armored vehicles to box in the suspect’s truck then shattering the windows and tossing in gas canisters to coax the driver out.
The driver, an unidentified woman, was taken into custody after 12:30 p.m. while TV news helicopters broadcast the standoff live overhead.
Video of the incident showed SWAT team members smash out the truck’s rear and driver‘s side windows with a metal pole, then use the pole to drop canisters of gas inside the truck cab to try to force the driver out.
After the first doses of gas, the woman kicked a passenger door open with her bare foot and briefly appeared, before closing the door and staying inside the truck.
A third canister of gas appeared to do the trick, with the woman exiting the vehicle where she was met by about a half-dozen police officers.
The incident took place in the driveway of a home near the intersection of Coldwater Canyon Avenue and Clawson Place about a half-mile south of Harvard Westlake School.
Police had halted traffic in and around the school and neighborhood for more than two hours.
According to KTLA, the pursuit began about 9:30 a.m. near Hollywood Boulevard and Vine Street when the truck hit a fire hydrant then fled police.
Along the way, police attempted a PIT manuever to disable the truck and eventually boxed it in, with multiple flat tires, in front of the Studio City home.
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