Three children ages 2,7, and 9 plus an 80-year old male driver and an elderly female passenger were hurt Friday evening after a dramatic police pursuit ended in a multi-car crash in Malibu. The bizarre and dangerous incident started late Friday afternoon in East Los Angeles when a male suspect carjacked an idling vehicle at a 7-11 convenience store. It’s unclear if the carjacker knew that the three children were in the car, the two-year-old still strapped in a car seat.
The suspect took off in the car and drove some 30 miles toward Malibu, ending up on Pacific Coast Highway driving at high speed with law enforcement on his tail and police helicopters following overhead. Police officers did not perform a PIT maneuver on the fleeing vehicle because they knew there were youngsters in the car. However, CHP did throw a spike strip onto the roadway in an effort to slow down the vehicle. The pursuit nearly came to an end when the suspect got to the intersection of PCH and Kanan. He blew through a red light, T-boning a car making a left turn from Kanan onto PCH, lost control of the stolen car, and slammed into several vehicles before crashing into a hillside. The suspect then leapt out of the car, leaving the children behind, and ran on foot toward Point Dume and Portshead Rd. where he unsuccessfully attempted to hijack another car. The unidentified carjacker discarded some of his clothing, scaled fences, including a barbed wire fence, and ran across a field barefoot before finally being captured by police on scene.
Witnesses who had run out of nearby businesses say the children were crying and looked scared but were quickly whisked out of the vehicle by the waiting law enforcement and into ambulances. The children are said to have moderate to minor injuries. The 80-year old male driver of a Lexus was said to be seriously hurt after his car was struck. All the victims were taken to UCLA Medical Center, one by helicopter.
The intersection of PCH and Kanan was closed from around 7:30 p.m. until 9 p.m.