Police in Desert Hot Springs say a man suspected of breaking into a home and assaulting two people was already gone when officers arrived Thursday night, then refused to stop once they found him in a vehicle.
The call came in about 11:20 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 12, from the 12000 block of Sumac Drive, MyNewsLA reported. KESQ also reported the late response and the chase that followed.
A Restraining Order And Two People He Knew
Police alleged the suspect was under a domestic-violence restraining order when he broke into the residence and assaulted a man and a woman. Lt. Christopher Saucier said the suspect and the two people were known to each other. He did not describe the relationship.
Calls From The Pursuit
Officers later located him in a vehicle and tried a traffic stop. He refused to yield, police said, and the stop became a pursuit.
During the chase, the department said, he made phone calls saying he wanted officers to kill him. Those calls brought in a Riverside County Sheriff's Department K-9 team, which used a grappler vehicle pursuit intervention system to stop the vehicle.
Booked In Indio
He would not get out and barricaded himself inside the stopped vehicle, police said. Officers deployed less-lethal options before taking him into custody.
MyNewsLA identified him as Jesse Lee Cormier, 37, of Desert Hot Springs. Saucier told City News Service that Cormier was booked into the Benoit Detention Center in Indio on suspicion of first-degree burglary, felony domestic violence, battery, a restraining-order violation, felony resisting arrest and felony evading, and was held in lieu of $500,000 bail.
KESQ's account of the same arrest said the man's identity had not been revealed, while reporting that bail figure.
