A dirt bike rider that police believed was armed led LAPD officers on a sprawling pursuit through Los Angeles on Wednesday, weaving through two public parks, stopping to refuel at a gas station, and ultimately trying to hide from officers inside a residential recycling bin before giving up.
The chase began near Dodger Stadium and stretched through downtown Los Angeles, along Figueroa Street, into Watts, then East Los Angeles before finally winding into South Los Angeles, according to CBS Los Angeles. The route crossed multiple LAPD patrol divisions and municipal boundaries, turning what started as a single pursuit into an hourslong odyssey across some of the city's most densely populated neighborhoods. The New York Post reported that the rider was seen racing around South Los Angeles and passed dangerously close to pedestrians during the ordeal.
At one point during the pursuit, the suspect pulled into a gas station on South Alameda Street in East Los Angeles to refuel, then sped off with the pump nozzle still attached to the bike, tearing off a piece of the equipment as he fled, per the same CBS account. The Post's reporting adds another strange wrinkle to the fuel stop: the rider also grabbed a jug of water, poured it into the bike, and got back on the road before continuing the chase. Footage of the incident, captured by ABC News, showed the rider scrolling through a cellphone even as officers trailed him.
Chase Cuts Through Two South LA Parks
The pursuit later spilled into open, pedestrian-filled green space. The rider drove across fields at Earvin “Magic” Johnson Park in Willowbrook and Athens Park in South Los Angeles, forcing park visitors to scramble out of the way, the CBS report states. Riding an off-road dirt bike into a public park is not just reckless; under California law, off-highway vehicles like dirt bikes are barred from operating on paved public roads or freeways at all unless they've been modified to meet DMV street-legal standards, including proper lighting, mirrors, and registration, according to Hoodline.
The chase finally came to an end near 112th Street and South Broadway in South Los Angeles, where the suspect abandoned his motorcycle and ran on foot into a residential neighborhood. Aerial news coverage tracked him as he ducked into a driveway and climbed inside a recycling bin in an apparent attempt to hide, before LAPD officers closed in and took him into custody, according to CBS and NBC Los Angeles.
Felony Evading Charges Loom
Because police believed the rider was armed, and given the extended, high-risk nature of the pursuit, the suspect could face felony charges under California Vehicle Code Section 2800.2. That statute makes evading a pursuing officer with willful or wanton disregard for safety — which can be established by committing three or more traffic violations — a wobbler offense punishable by up to three years in state prison and fines as high as $10,000, per FindLaw.
LAPD guidelines require supervisors and air units to continuously weigh public safety risks before deciding whether to continue or terminate a ground pursuit in crowded neighborhoods, according to the department's operational procedures. That balancing act helps explain why officers tracked the rider by helicopter through much of the chase rather than engaging in a high-speed, bumper-to-bumper ground pursuit through packed streets and parks.
Part of a Growing Regional Pattern
Wednesday's chase was not an isolated event. Just two days earlier, California Highway Patrol officers pursued two dirt bike riders who were joined by nearly 20 additional helmetless motorcyclists performing stunts across Los Angeles freeways and surface streets before CHP air units lost visual contact, according to footage shared on Facebook by Law Enforcement News. Large-group dirt bike rides like that one often organize on social media and scatter to evade officers on the ground.
Dirt bike pursuits with bizarre twists have become something of a recurring theme in the region this year. Back in April, CHP officers chased a rider through South LA who repeatedly refused to yield and filmed himself on his phone before officers boxed him in near Alondra Boulevard. Statewide, pursuits and their fallout are far from rare: the CHP's Senate Bill 719 annual report found that California law enforcement agencies logged 11,985 vehicle pursuits in 2022, with 19 percent of them, or 2,275 pursuits, ending in a collision.
