Chase Of Suspects in Hotel Robbery Ends in Head-on Crash With Another Car
May 22, 2002
SOUTH LOS ANGELES -- Two men wanted for an armed motel robbery in Anaheim were involved in a wrong-way crash today in Azusa, seconds after a police cruiser nudged the suspect vehicle inadvertently on to a freeway offramp.
The driver of the tan SUV avoided a head-on crash with a large rental truck, but then moved into the path of a maroon SUV exiting the freeway, resulting in a near head-on collision at the Foothill (210) Freeway and Citrus Avenue.
The suspects, identified later as Jorge Lopez, 32, of Los Angeles and Carlos Lopez, 27, of San Dimas, and a woman in the maroon SUV were taken to a hospital near the crash scene, said Anaheim police Sgt. Rick Martinez.
The men were held on suspicion of robbery, kidnapping during the commission of a felony and evading arrest, with bail at $250,000, Martinez said. Whether they were brothers was not immediately known, Martinez said.
"They're not telling us a whole heck of a lot right now," he said.
Martinez said authorities will "review all video and note every time (the suspects) ran a red light and hit somebody," which will add to the case. He said the men probably will be charged for traffic violations that occurred in Covina.
The woman in the crumpled maroon Ford Expedition suffered abrasions but was out of the hospital by mid-afternoon, Martinez said.
Two men, one in a wheelchair and both armed, had entered a Fairfield Inn at 201 N. Via Cortez about 11 a.m. and asked about room rates, Martinez said. Police later determined that neither man needed a wheelchair, Martinez said.
"They tied up two of the female employees and after committing the robbery, they got into a tan Explorer," Martinez said.
The crash in Azusa about 11:45 a.m. occurred seconds after an Anaheim officer in a black-and-white tried to spin the suspect rented vehicle -- which had been going at high speed throughout residential neighborhoods -- by nudging the right rear.
After a couple of attempts on nearby surface streets, the last nudge seemed to cause the suspect vehicle to slide into the freeway exit ramp. Now the driver was going the wrong way -- into traffic coming off the freeway at Citrus.
Rather than stop, the man at the wheel kept going, steering the tan SUV to the left to avoid a yellow Ryder rental truck, but into the path of the woman's maroon SUV.
The left front portion of the exiting vehicle struck the right front of the suspect SUV, spinning the woman's maroon vehicle around. The crash left both vehicles heavily damaged and facing the wrong direction on the offramp.
Firefighters had to wrench open the passenger side door of the twisted maroon SUV to help the woman pinned in behind the deployed air bag get out.
Martinez said the Anaheim officer who performed the "PIT" maneuver was reacting to the situation.
"The officers were unsuccessful in getting the guy to stop," he said. "Our actions in pursuit, many times, are dictated by the guys we're pursuing. They were known to be armed and dangerous. They just tied two people up (and that was) compounded by their reckless driving behavior. They were driving with reckless abandon to anybody's safety."
While still in Orange County, the driver of the SUV rented from Budget Car and Truck Rental went the wrong way on a surface street briefly, bumped some vehicles and drove in excess of 100 mph, authorities said.
Anaheim police Lt. Don Klein said the PIT -- for pursuit intervention technique -- maneuver is designed to stop the chase.
"Basically, it's a maneuver," he said. "You have to be in the right position to try (it), where the police vehicle strikes the rear end of a suspect vehicle, tries to spin it out so that the oncoming police officers and their vehicles can actually block that vehicle off."
Anaheim police found money and two guns in the tan Explorer.
