A late-night pursuit through the streets of South Los Angeles had all the makings of a tense crime drama, except this one was very real, and it wrapped up with a suspect in handcuffs and, fortunately, no one in the hospital. Santa Monica police officers tracked down a kidnapping suspect in the early morning hours of Monday, set off in pursuit when he ran, and ended up in a shooting situation that, somehow, left everyone standing.
The incident unfolded at roughly 3:15 a.m., the kind of hour when most Angelenos are deep asleep and the city is as quiet as it ever gets. That peace was short-lived for the officers involved, who were already working an active kidnapping investigation when the suspect came onto their radar. Once located, the suspect apparently decided that fleeing was a better option than cooperating, which, spoiler alert, it was not.
The chase eventually came to a halt near the intersection of Hoover Street and 85th Street, a South LA neighborhood far outside Santa Monica’s usual jurisdiction. That is where things escalated quickly and an officer-involved shooting occurred. Police have not released details about what exactly triggered the gunfire, leaving plenty of questions in the air about how those final moments played out…