A robbery suspect led Los Angeles police officers on a high-speed chase across the 10 Freeway Wednesday night, with the fleeing driver hitting speeds topping 120 miles per hour as officers tracked an object possibly thrown from the vehicle's window. The pursuit, which stretched through Los Angeles County, remained a developing situation as of late Wednesday.
LAPD officers began chasing the suspect driver, who is wanted for a possible robbery, according to KTLA. The chase played out on the 10 Freeway, with the outlet reporting the driver reached speeds of more than 120 miles per hour. That is nearly double the posted 65 mph limit on Interstate 10 through urban Los Angeles County, a major corridor that carries dense traffic through the heart of the city, according to the California DMV. News helicopter Sky5 was overhead tracking the pursuit as it unfolded, and KTLA said it would continue updating the developing story.
At some point during the chase, an object — possibly a firearm — appeared to be thrown out of the vehicle's window, per the station's report. Under California Vehicle Code Section 23110, tossing a dangerous object capable of causing great bodily injury from a moving vehicle can be charged as a felony, not merely a misdemeanor, according to the Shouse Law Group. Discarding a weapon onto an active freeway creates immediate hazards for trailing motorists and officers alike, and it complicates evidence collection once the chase ends.
The Robbery Allegation and Potential Charges
The underlying offense that triggered the pursuit — a possible robbery — carries its own steep penalties. Under California Penal Code Section 211, robbery is defined as taking personal property from another person by force or fear, and it is classified as a violent felony punishable by up to nine years in state prison, according to Justia Law. If the driver is captured and found to have fled with willful or wanton disregard for safety, prosecutors could also pursue a separate felony evading charge under Vehicle Code Section 2800.2, which carries a sentence of 16 months to three years and fines up to $10,000, per the Shouse Law Group.
LAPD policy restricts when officers can even initiate a pursuit like this one. Special Order No. 5, updated in July 2025, bars officers from chasing drivers solely for minor traffic infractions or misdemeanor evading, instead requiring reasonable suspicion or probable cause tied to a qualifying felony or DUI — a threshold Hoodline detailed in its earlier Westlake-to-Encino chase coverage. A suspected robbery would meet that bar, which is why supervisors authorized officers to continue onto the freeway.
A Surge in LAPD Pursuits Citywide
This chase adds to what has become a markedly busier year for LAPD pursuits. Officers engaged in 1,116 vehicle pursuits in 2024, the department's highest annual total since at least 2018, with more than 30 percent of those chases ending in a collision, according to statistics presented to the Board of Police Commissioners and reported by the Los Angeles Times. Those 2024 pursuits resulted in 353 collisions and more than 100 civilian injuries citywide, the Times reported.
The danger extends well beyond the people directly involved in a chase. Pursuit-related collisions can also put bystanders at risk. Statewide, the picture is similarly stark: California Highway Patrol recorded 11,985 total police pursuits in 2022, with 19 percent ending in collisions that caused 32 fatal crashes and 34 deaths, per the agency's annual report to the state Legislature.
Eyes in the Sky
Sky5's overhead footage was made possible in part by the scale of LAPD's aerial operation. The department's Air Support Division flies a fleet of 17 helicopters out of Hooper Heliport in downtown Los Angeles — the world's largest rooftop heliport — making it the largest municipal airborne law enforcement operation anywhere, according to Vertical Mag. Those aircraft maintain continuous coverage over 469 square miles to assist ground units during pursuits like Wednesday's.
Suspects have previously used the freeway system's overpasses to try to shake aerial coverage. In an August 2025 pursuit elsewhere in Los Angeles County, two carjacking suspects drove under a Boyle Heights overpass in an attempt to temporarily block the view of police and television news helicopters, the Los Angeles Times reported. The driver in Wednesday's chase used overpasses to evade aerial coverage, and KTLA had not reported an outcome to the pursuit as of its last update.
