A driver suspected of stealing a Mercedes SUV led law enforcement on a slow, sprawling chase across South Los Angeles surface streets and onto the eastbound Interstate 10 before officers smashed a window and pulled him from the vehicle in University Park late Thursday night. The pursuit began in Paramount and ended with the suspect in custody, driving on two flattened rear tires for much of the final stretch.
According to MyNewsLA, the chase began when Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department deputies from the Lakewood station tried to pull over the Mercedes in Paramount. As the vehicle crossed into South Los Angeles, the pursuit was handed off first to the California Highway Patrol and then to the Los Angeles Police Department, a common occurrence as fleeing drivers cross municipal and county lines. NBC Los Angeles reported that the pursuit was mostly confined to surface streets before the driver merged onto eastbound Interstate 10 just before 10:30 p.m.
Spike Strips and a PIT Maneuver End the Chase
CHP officers deployed spike strips during the pursuit, flattening both of the Mercedes' rear tires, but the driver kept going, continuing onto the freeway despite the damage, the same account notes. Officers eventually executed a Pursuit Intervention Technique, or PIT maneuver, in University Park to bring the vehicle to a stop. When the driver would not comply, officers used ballistic shields to smash a window and physically extract him from the car.
The pursuit ended without reported civilian casualties, though the driver's decision to keep moving on flattened tires illustrates the unpredictable risks officers face even after deploying tactics meant to end a chase safely. Under California Vehicle Code Section 2800.2, fleeing a pursuing officer with willful or wanton disregard for safety is charged as felony reckless evading, a wobbler offense punishable by 16 months to three years in state prison, per Shouse Law Group. Driving on flat tires or blowing through traffic signals during a chase can serve as evidence of that wanton disregard.
Auto Theft Charges Could Compound the Case
If the Mercedes is confirmed stolen, the driver could also face charges under California Vehicle Code Section 10851, which covers unlawfully taking or driving another person's vehicle without consent. That statute, outlined by Eisner Gorin LLP, is a wobbler offense carrying up to three years in prison or county jail regardless of whether the suspect intended to keep the car or was simply joyriding, and it is routinely filed alongside felony evading charges in pursuit cases involving stolen vehicles.
Every agency involved in Thursday's chase will also have paperwork to file. Under California Senate Bill 719 and Vehicle Code Section 14602.1, all law enforcement agencies involved in a pursuit must submit a standardized Allied Agency Vehicle Pursuit Report to the California Highway Patrol within 30 days, a requirement enacted to track pursuit collisions, injuries, and departmental compliance statewide.
A Chase in a State Where Car Theft Is Falling
The incident comes even as statewide vehicle theft numbers have been dropping. Statewide vehicle thefts fell nearly 25% in 2025 to 133,372 stolen vehicles, down from 176,230 the year before, marking a second consecutive year-over-year decline, according to the California Highway Patrol. The agency's 2025 factsheet also found that law enforcement recovered 84% of all vehicles stolen statewide last year, with stolen light trucks and SUVs like the Mercedes involved in Thursday's chase yielding an 89.3% recovery rate.
Within Los Angeles itself, the numbers remain sobering. LAPD crime statistics show roughly 30,000 vehicles are stolen annually in the city, accounting for about 24% of all property crime and 18% of total citywide crime. LAPD policy requires officers and field supervisors to perform a continuous balancing test, weighing the public safety risk of a chase against the need to apprehend a fleeing felony suspect, a standard that has drawn scrutiny after LAPD data from 2018 to 2022 showed roughly a quarter of pursuits ended in collisions.
South LA's Recent History With Police Chases
Thursday's pursuit adds to a string of high-profile chases through South Los Angeles surface streets in recent months. In May, a fleeing Tesla struck a Mercedes at Slauson and Denker avenues, killing the Mercedes driver, a case Hoodline covered in its report on the fatal Slauson Avenue crash. In July, another LAPD chase through the area ended in a crash that sent three people to the hospital, an incident Hoodline detailed in coverage of a South LA chase crash. Those incidents have kept public attention fixed on how officers weigh the risks of pursuing suspects through dense residential corridors.
