A 30-year-old woman put the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Deputies to the ultimate road test of their career. The woman led police on a rampaging road chase throughout the city that caused damage to dozens of other vehicles and ended when the SWAT team surrounded the car. Because the woman used her car as a deadly weapon during the chase, deputies filled her car with tear gas – only to force a nine-year-old girl from the passenger seat of the car.
The child ran for safety after fleeing the vehicle that had been chased by cops. Because the adult refused to leave the Nissan sedan after the chase concluded, the little girl was put at risk. The vehicle was bombarded by rubber bullets. The deputies unleashed a drone to pester the car, and the SWAT team was armed and ready.
The woman maintained a standoff with police for hours until they were able to fill the car with tear gas. When the chemical entered the air in the car, it was powerful enough to force the little girl in the passenger seat to flee the car and run to safety. Deputies quickly picked her up and brought her away from the crazed woman behind the wheel of the car and to a safer location.
The appearance of the little girl shocked everyone. An anchor following the car chase with Fox 11 exclaimed, “Oh my God! Is that a child?” after seeing the little girl flee the tear-gassed car. The anchor initially thought that the driver had left the car, but when authorities picked up the child, she realized it was not an adult after all.
After the child had left the Nissan, police were able to approach the vehicle and apprehend the driver. But this came long after she had given the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Deputies the chase of their careers.
LASD lieutenant Todd Knight confirmed that “nobody knew the child was in the car,” which was why they loaded it up with tear gas. If the deputies had known that a child was seated next to the out-of-control driver, they might not have followed through with the tear gas plan.
Tear gas was used only after deputies made “multiple efforts” to speak to the driver – all of which failed. The woman behind the wheel of the Nissan was not willing to cooperate with authorities.
It is not clear how the child is related to the driver. The girl, nine, was rushed to a local hospital where she was treated for “unspecified injuries.” It is not clear if she was injured during the high-speed chase or if the deputies’ tear gas bombs were what hurt the child.
The car chase began after the Nissan got involved in a hit-and-run accident near Diamond Bar Boulevard in Los Angeles. The chase continued to hours on Tuesday afternoon.
Although a police helicopter and plenty of squad cars chased after the Nissan, it managed to avoid capture by slamming into parked cars and speeding through stoplights. Police eventually stopped the car and barricaded it in with police vehicles, which was when the tear gas was deployed.