Stolen Car Suspect Critically Injured in Los Angeles Crash
LOS ANGELES (March 22, 2023) – A man who police say stole a car and tried to run over a police officer in Historic South-Central Los Angeles crashed the vehicle hours later and was taken to the hospital in critical condition, according to a report in The Los Angeles Times.
According to the report, the man was accused of stealing a car from his mother on Sunday. According to Los Angeles Police Department Spokesperson Officer Mike Lopez, the woman called police at around 7:10 pm later that evening to report that she had seen the vehicle in a parking lot on the 2300 block of Wall Street.
Officers located the vehicle at the same parking lot, according to Lopez, thinking it was vacant, but the suspect was inside and drove the car, a red four-door sedan, toward an officer who had to jump out of the way.
The man drove away but was not pursued by police. Hours later, the man was involved in a serious accident that landed him in the hospital.
Los Angeles Accident Involved Alleged Stolen Vehicle
More than four hours after his run-in with the police, sometime around 11:35 pm, the same driver was involved in a car crash involving three vehicles at East Washington Boulevard and South Central Avenue, according to KTLA.
As a result of the accident, the stolen car suspect had to be extricated from the vehicle by firefighters. He was rushed to the hospital in critical condition. According to the Los Angeles Fire Department, the drivers of the two other cars suffered minor injuries.
Video from the scene showed that the stolen vehicle had mounted the sidewalk and came to rest outside a fast-food restaurant. It sustained significant damage, and the car’s hood was crumpled against a pole as firefighters worked to extract the driver.
Although a Los Angeles Fire Department press release stated that the crash ended a police pursuit, LAPD officials vehemently denied that report saying that the collision was entirely separate from the stolen vehicle investigation.
The driver was arrested on charges of assault with a deadly weapon for allegedly driving the car at an officer. Lopez told the Los Angeles Times that the driver is also suspected of being involved in a separate, unrelated robbery.
