Very slow speed pursuit of suspected DUI driver

go anymore um didn't know that a vehicle could could drive through a dirt like that just on tattered tires and rims but there it is and allah as you can see as the camera pulls back a lot of open road up ahead and uh these law enforcement officers again just content to let this driver be against suspected dui palmdale area the driver hit some spike strips and has been driving on tattered tires and there's another tire looks like coming off right now or a rim or a shred or a piece of let's bring in dennis zein at this point our our expert dennis so what you're seeing here officers have been chasing for give and chase for about i believe 45 minutes or so and they've had opportunities to either pit or to try to bring this to a close they haven't chosen to do that well he's isolated when you look at the area he's driving a dirt road no pedestrians no parked vehicles it's really a safe area if you want to take him into custody without endangering the public the only person he's going to hurt is himself so as we see the right rear tire as you've mentioned is coming off he's not going to go too much farther but if you want to get in the pursuit and have the officers follow you with the air unit the ground units he's going to the car is going to finally disintegrate if he keeps up with that particular action and they've got time on their sides again there's no cross streets there's no pedestrians he's in a very isolated area this is ideal if you want to have a pursuit and not endanger the public so this particular situation they'll follow him they may do a pit maneuver but in this particular situation not really necessary he can't go that fast he's obviously got the right tire gone we don't know about the rest of them but uh this will continue until he's waving his hand out of the window for something right but he obviously doesn't want to surrender i think he's got his emergency flashers on now so this is just one of these bizarre pursuits that we see here in the uh in the county of los angeles it looks like dennis yeah and it looks like he may be stopping here or he now he's banging on the roof with the open hand it looks like he's he's sort of lost control at this point he's not able to go anymore the there's just not enough tread or traction on those on those tires that were spiked he's putting his window up now one officer pulled over at least one we see uh some sort of a weapon i don't know if that's a taser or gun it'll gun drawn and the driver has one hand up at least that's all i can see that's visible at this point can't see the other one but those uh very darkly tinted windows those windows went up immediately he's no longer shaking his fist out the window at the officers behind him or flipping the bird but he has pulled over and we see one two three okay officers uh units there and officers with their guns drawn i see a rifle and some other weapons i don't see any canines looked like all four of those tires and were shredded and gone and uh i didn't see any accident of any kind but even the front bumper there was sort of was sort of wiggling like like you said dennis it could only go so far and either wait till the gas runs out or he reaches some terrain here as he's driving on a dirt road off of pear blossom highway in this palmdale area where the where this chasers could no longer continue right if he was in the four-wheel drive then obviously he'd be able to continue the officers in those crown vics they don't have that four wheel capacity or if they had some explorers they would but they do have the hearing aid overhead and obviously he's rolled the window up he's in the car uh the car basically dismantle is now the tires have disintegrated at least you know the left front and the right rear so why he wrote the window up after he waved his hands out and now he's isolated in that car with the dark window so the officers are the position of advantage and they'll try to talk him out uh there's no use for a k-9 at this particular situation because the k-9 is not going to get into the vehicle so as we see that one deputy went back to where the others are they're using those doors for cover and hopefully he'll open that window and come out we don't know if he has a weapon or not that's always a concern if he's a dui or he's wanted for some other type of crime but the bottom line is right now we're going to see a standoff between him and the deputies and there's obviously sufficient deputies at that location to take him into custody but he's not going to be able to move that vehicle that's now come to a full halt and he's isolated in the car so they'll surround him they may bring in some other vehicles in order to extricate him from the car but at this particular time they got guns pointed at him again they don't know if he's well if he has a weapon or not so on the air on the side of caution they want to make sure they're protected and there's no again there's no public in jeopardy here there's no pedestrians no homes no businesses so this is an ideal situation if you want to take someone into custody and not endanger the the public the car's immobile uh he's standoff between him and the deputies now and that'll continue until he decides to get out of the car or they use other types of means to get him out of the car which they have that capacity if they wish to do that and dennis it looks like he he's a couple of times just while you were speaking he's rolled the window down and looks like he's done it again here's another time he keeps rolling the window down i don't know if he's taunting the officers yelling at them it looks like he's sort of shaking his hand shaking a fist out the window and then the and then he rolls the window back up and we've seen that a couple of times too and this may be a third time yeah he's rolling it back up again it's uh it's those windows yeah sorry dennis i was just pointing out the windows are that's a very dark tint i would say that's illegal i believe you can't have dark windows there oh he's trying to move the vehicle so it looks like there's a steep grade that he's come up against and without the tires he doesn't have any any grab and he can't move the vehicle forward but it looks like he's got uh well there's at least this one vehicle you know next to him and and then all the officers in the defensive position behind him he's rolled the window down again he's yelling out the window again and then rolling the window back up yes and those windows are illegal you can't have the side windows tinted you can't have the windshield tinted so he's in violation of that the back window you can the rear windows you can have tinted but the fact is that's a minor violation compared to the other activities that he's been involved in he's not going to get to go too far because again with no tires in any other on a sand environment that car without any tires no inflation tires he's not able to travel too far he'll just go on the rim and he won't be able to get any speed but again the important part about this is there's no jeopardy of the public so whatever he wants to do the deputies have the time they have the patience they've got the resources there there's a number of units and they'll hold them out as long as they need and if they can bring in some of the other vehicles they have to extricate them from that car they'll do that but right now it's one of these wait and see situations as he holds the deputies off while he's in the car and he's playing that open the window close the window with a close window he may be yelling at them uh screaming at them whatever he's doing he's definitely not cooperating with uh their orders to remove himself from the vehicle right i was pointing out this darkly there's any what's in there dan i think he's all by himself yeah we that's the the questions that we have to ask is there someone else in the vehicle is there a weapon in the vehicle and i was pointing out the dark the tint on the windows because obviously for officer safety can't see inside don't know what's going on inside the vehicle we don't have a report that there's another person in there or that there's a vehicle all we know at this point is it's a dui suspect but uh once you hit the spike strip it was a very slow speed chase in case you're just joining us dan cohen in the fox 11 newsroom you're watching live coverage right now of a very slow speech assistant going on almost an hour and this is the conclusion the driver hit some spike strips and the the tires are pretty well pretty well gone they've been what is left is is tattered he's basically been on the rims and look at that you can see the law enforcement there one two three four five six seven eight or so nine officers with their guns trained uh the driver here possible dui suspect again has been shaking his hand shaking a fist he was throwing money out a few minutes ago throwing money out the windows and in neighborhoods not sure what he was trying to do if he was trying to get people to come out on the roads somehow to get officers off his tail it didn't work obviously but uh here he is it looks like i don't know if that if that unit is parked too close that he couldn't actually open the door to come out but um that the the unit there is parked right next to that suspect vehicle and he's just been putting his window up and down and up and down and yelling something we can't hear out the window at the officers and uh at this point it's a waiting game just have to i said suppose right then there's sufficient room for him to open that door yeah remove himself from their vehicle again we've got the vehicles with the push bars on there if they wish to that but the car is immobile so there's no reason to do anything else other than this wait and see what situation they may be calling in for some additional some other equipment to extricate him from the vehicle uh they may have a canine i don't think he's gonna get out and run but if he does obviously they'll go on a foot pursuit uh and he's got no place to hide he's in an open area in a uh in a rural area i can't imagine he would get very far even if he did try to get out and run the the the terrain there doesn't doesn't lend to running very far at this point the road however in front of him is wide open so uh if he were gonna go anywhere and he has tried we saw him try to try to hit the gas and get away but i can't tell it's hard to tell from this chopper picture but it looks like there's some maybe grade that he came up upon he just didn't have enough grab he didn't have any traction on what's left of the tires and rims there to go anywhere so he just keeps putting the window up and down and we saw both hands coming out a moment ago uh he he had both fingers over the the driver's side window looked like he was screaming out at officers again and then and then he retreated again and pulled his hands and his arms back in and and put that window back up so well he's definitely immobile there's no way that that car is going to go any great distance with the tires we know the left front's out the right rears out uh what other damage is done to the car but we've got the deputies he's holding the deputies at bay they're in a secure area and as we see the deputies with the sheriff's vehicle and they may be getting some other equipment prepared to remove him from the vehicle they've got the capability to do that there's a deputy with the flak vest and they've got the ground cover they may be they may be launching the tear gas into the vehicle they may be doing that they're doing something to the deputy behind the sheriff's vehicle he's got a weapon that may be used to punch out the window of the car as we see he keeps on taunting them with his hands out he'll open the door close the door so it's basically a standoff the good part again there's no jeopardy to the general public there's no pedestrians no vehicles no buildings no he's in an isolated area he's in a good situation for the deputies to take him into custody eventually he will finally give up uh whether he wants to do a voluntary or they'll get him out of that car extricated from the car one way or the other this is a pursuit that's come to an end but those deputies have a lot of equipment available and there may be more equipment coming online you notice the deputies with their guns out they do not know if he's armed or not and they're using those vehicles as protection normally they have uh equipment in the doors of the vehicles to protect the deputies and there's one deputy with a flak vest and he may be firing that vehicle we're going to see that happen uh maybe in a second or two and we'd be fine can we talk about that for a moment so you talked about the the punching out maybe of that rear window uh we saw the weapon that you pointed out from an officer it almost it almost looked like looked like a pepper ball or pepper you know gun would it be a tiered tear gas to your canister and he's he's got his hands out again the window is is almost completely up just barely cracked just enough room to put his hands out so at what point is very he's been very unpredictable just trying to figure out what is it shoot out that back window shoot a tear canister to your gas canister in there pepper balls or what it could be a number of items that they have at their disposal in the field i don't think any other equipment has been delivered they may have some equipment in route to uh take him into custody to take the windows out to lob tear gas into the vehicle whatever they wish to do oh okay they're firing they're firing at them they're firing at the vehicle it looks like they're firing at the vehicle right now and they'll be non-lethal rounds uh whatever they're not going to be using lethal rounds if they do anything it'll be something to get him out to remove him from the vehicle once he's out of the vehicle they'll take him into custody so uh what we see those uh might be bean bag there may be bean bags that they're firing at the vehicle to break the windows out they're not using deadly force against him at this particular time and there's no reason he's got no weapons he hasn't displayed any weapons so they just want to extricate him from the car so they'll use non-lethal means to remove him from the car to force him out of the car so we saw that they fired something it may have been b bank they fired uh and that would hopefully get him to move out of the vehicle so whatever it is uh it's still a standoff but uh it wouldn't be tear gas because it was tear gas you'd see the tear gas coming from the vehicle and you'd see him choking getting out of the car they may be maybe beanbag but they use a beanbag device to break a window to remove him from the vehicle so we're still at a standoff again this will continue until they have a device or get additional equipment to remove from the car and it's very dangerous for them to approach that vehicle while he's in the car with those tinted windows not knowing if he has a weapon they're going to air on the side of caution they got time on their side again it's isolated there's no spectators the only spectators they have are the viewers uh on fox 11 and sky fox overhead so it's in a safe area while they're carrying out this activity to try and get him to surrender and obviously he's not going to go anyplace and if he tries he's going to get taken down real quick by the time he keeps putting his hands out and he keeps showing the officers his hands then he pulls them back in he was pointing a moment ago it looked like he was pointing at something i can't i don't know what he was pointing at but the hands keep going out and the hands back in and whatever was fired at the vehicle was cl clearly fi it was high velocity whether it was a bean bag i mean i can see it what left at least one two three four marks on the on the rear uh driver's side window there so uh you don't believe they were trying to shoot the window out right there or shoot at that point maybe with the beanbag they're not going to be using deadly force at this time there's no reason to use deadly forces i mean he's obviously holding himself in the car not not coming out not voluntarily moving they're going to come out of the car one way or another but they're not going to run up to the car if he does have a weapon and they run to the car and then he starts shooting deputies so they're not going to risk their lives for that but they'll use whatever they can use at their disposal again they have certain equipment in the field and then they can call for additional equipment and that may be enroute from the station or from other units that have other equipment as we see the deputies are properly deployed we've got deputies surrounding the car there's no crossfire they've got them to the right to the rear to the left so there's no one in front so they will hold the position of advantage until they can uh persuade him to remove himself from the vehicle so basically the standoff uh they obviously want to bring this to an end we don't want darkness to set in because then you really got a situation without any illumination so this should end pretty quick uh with his cooperation lack of cooperation once he's out of the vehicle then we can call a code four but at this time it's basically a standoff again no public in jeopardy and it's simply him in the car the car is uh disabled he's not gonna be able to drive it and uh what we see is a typical standoff where he'll come to his senses hopefully or they're firing against whatever we're firing against there's more fire the vehicle is receiving more fire at this point okay so those aren't those aren't well they're not they're not firing the live ammunition yet and we're not going to be doing that i'm just saying you're not lethal there's something okay non-lethal but the they are receive he's receiving the driver there's something hitting the view pepper balls possibly right okay and the window is now down so the drivers put the window down again he hasn't put it down now he's sort of hanging out the side a little bit he's got his head and his arms draped down the door he still looks like he's communicating with him obviously he's with an ear shot so he can hear and he is able to communicate with them he doesn't appear to be wounded whatever they shot at him like you said dennis are non-lethal they were pepper balls they don't seem to be like uh he doesn't seem to be that irritated by them not like if it was tear gas or a canister okay he's putting his hands over his face though maybe they i don't know what what proximity and how close do you have to fire those pepper balls in order for them to really you know have maximum effect dennis well they're penetrating the windows obviously he's got the driver's window down he's uh the window may be uh shattered at this particular time but he's uh i don't think they're firing tear gas at him that would be unlikely at this particular stage but he is putting his hand over his eyes but he'd be talking with the tear gas he is talking he is communicating and he is hanging out the driver's side there we can't hear what he's saying but uh it looked like there was some more pepper balls being fired there just from that that's a guesstimate but uh well they're firing some non-lethal they have a lot of non-lethal weapons that they can utilize and it may be it's one of those nine lethal otherwise uh he would have passed by now with the number of rounds that were fired in but everyone thinks they're firing live ammunition they're not uh there's no need to do that he's a pursuit uh individual he's wanted for dui they're not going to use deadly force just because he's refusing to get out of the vehicle so they'll use non-lethal means to have him remove himself from the vehicle again they see his hands but there's no telling if he's got a gun under the seat or on the seat or in his waistband there's no talent so that's why they're not rushing up to the car they want to make sure that it's safe before they approach that vehicle and while he's flailing his hands around and apparently he's communicating with them he's not cooperating and they want him out of that car once they get him out of the car then they will swarm him get him down get him handcuffed and take him into custody so what they're doing is uh what they're trained to do is be patient uh and try to encourage him every way possible to cooperate and obviously he'll be taken into custody you'll be booked on a number of charges so as the pursuit came to a conclusion while we see in this isolated area uh time is on their side they just don't want to get dark they want to take them into custody before darkness sets in and as we see now it's a little after four o'clock in the afternoon uh we still have a few more hours of light so uh we're gonna hold on to this until he decides but they'll continue to do what they can do to uh encourage him to remove himself to remove himself from that vehicle and this will come to a peaceful ending hopefully for everyone involved he appears to be quite irritated and he is a dui suspect and is quite possible that he's drunk uh but we don't know at this point but he is screaming and yelling and he was taunting the officers uh it is four o'clock and top of the hour here let me just bring everybody up to speed and set the table dennis if you don't mind uh you're watching a live broadcast right now the fox 11 news uh right now this is a a very slow speed chase that started a little over an hour ago the driver here in this black vehicle that you can see a slow speed chase the palmdale area it was on a pear blossom highway he was driving on surface streets about 10 miles per hour hit a spike strip at some point a little while ago and has been basically driving on tattered tires and rims for the most part uh pulled off and and is on a dirt road and hit some sort of a steep grade where he was no longer able to continue the chase there are four five six or so units behind him officers trained on him there was another officer to flanking him on his right also has a a weapon pointed to this man and he's been quite irritated and uh window's been rolled up and down he's been showing his hands then pulling his hands back in putting the window up dropping it again and clearly the officers have been trying to get him out to comply on his knees so that they can take him into custody and at this point uh have not made have not made any tactical moves other than they fired some pepper balls in fact we have some video of that we're going to show you the video this from just a few moments ago the driver again as i was saying irritable window up window down they've been trying to coax them out and and here we're going to show you you will see some these are the pepper balls or non-lethal rounds according to our our expert here on the phone with us dennis stein uh he doesn't appear to be injured he did put his hand over his face like maybe the the effect of the pepper balls had worked not a tear gas or a canister that probably would have gotten out of the car even quicker but at this point dennis it's a waiting game there are no other drivers around so there's no threat to anyone else in terms of that danger there are no homes there's an open wide open stretchy road ahead of him but the vehicle has basically been immobilized because it has nothing but tattered tires and rims and the officer is just waiting it out from behind well what they have in route then is they're going to have special equipment and maybe the swat team members but they'll be special equipment since this is being held off for a period of time they will come and back up those deputies with other equipment non-lethal they have a lot of non-lethal weaponry they can utilize and as we see they've already launched the pepper balls into the vehicle they've utilized those that hasn't removed him from the vehicle so they're going to bring additional equipment additional personnel again they're not going to shoot the man with bullets and kill him in the car uh they've got time on their side so while you see those rounds going off those are non-lethal rounds pepper balls or tear gas or anything else they use to take people into custody so additional equipment will arrive as this has been a standoff now for a while additional equipment will be arriving probably with the swat team from the l.a county sheriff's department and they have specialized equipment they can utilize you said bean bags that will that can that can break the glass that will break out maybe that back window where they could fire a tear canister or tear gas well they could they can launch tear gas pepper balls whatever there's a lot of non-lethal weaponry that the officers have at their disposal and they feel they've got bean bags they've got non-lethal weapons so it doesn't kill anyone and what they do is to try to utilize that to take into custody this particular individual is obviously resisting surrendering giving up or getting out of the car so what they will do is if they have to break out those windows and people question why don't they just run up you got enough deputies why don't you just run up and surround them and take them out right if he has a gun he could take out a number of deputies so their life is very important obviously to them and to the general public so they're not going to go up and run around this car and surround the car in the fact he may have a weapon and they have to air on the side of caution so this standoff will continue but i'm sure additional personnel and equipment probably from the sheriff's swat team will be in route sometimes they helicopter them in sometimes they come in with their vehicles but they will bring in additional equipment in order to utilize to break those windows out to get him out of the car uh he'll come out of the car one way or another hopefully he'll cooperate but he hasn't shown cooperation at this point okay dennis please hang on we want to bring in juanita navarro from la sheriffs juanita can you hear me yes i can hear you all right so we're seeing the conclusion here to a slow speed but still very dramatic chase uh this driver his car has been immobilized at a peaceful valley road in palmdale the hit a spike strip the tires are gone basically just been driving on rims and slow speed chase has been going on for a little over an hour uh where are you what perspective what can you share with us what i can tell you right now is that the utilization of the spike strip has proven to be effective that's exactly what we want we want to neutralize the threat in this case no one's been injured we've neutralized the threat now we have time to make sure that we implement all our resources we have canine that's responding we have several deputies that are out at the scene they're evaluating and assessing the situation we have various less than lethal options that we can utilize to breach this vehicle we also have our special enforcement bureau that will be responding at this at this time so we have what we want at this time a peaceful resolution you have to understand that this suspect can put this to an end at any moment he can comply with our orders and he can exit and we can safely bring the community back to a safe environment it's very it's very important that the public does not come out as you can see you guys are pulling out of there but as you can see this is a desert location this is an area where there's a lot of room but ultimately what we want is we want a peaceful resolution we're going to utilize our resources we have time on our hands and the most important thing here is safety safety for the suspect safety for the public and safety for the deputies deputy navarro do you know is it just the main we haven't seen anyone else in the vehicle but can you confirm that it's just this driver and also do you do you know or have you been able to hear if there's a weapon does he have a weapon of some kind we don't have confirmation as to whether or not there's a weapon in the vehicle if there's any other suspects or people additionally in the vehicle but as of right now we just want to make sure that he just complies that he surrenders you know if there's something going on in his life we want to talk about it we want to help him but as as of right now it's proven effective that the use of the spike strips it has neutralized a threat he has stopped and right now hopefully he can reason within himself if we are not able to communicate or convey that to him and he can actually just give up and allow the situation just to end peacefully safety and protection of the general public is paramount safety and protection of the officers and safety and protection even of the suspect is of importance as well strategy protocol going forward to deputy navarro at one point will the officers elevate i know those are very dark intended windows it will start to get dark in a little while and then it's a game changer in terms of knowing exactly what's going on inside the vehicle with this man as we see and as the camera pushes in he's he's had some very erratic and he looks very irritated the hand gestures he's been flailing he was hanging out the driver's side you know his head in his arms a few moments ago and back in at what point i know you you're patient but at what point do you uh do you make a move well that's actually a good question uh but you have to look at what we're dealing with here we have time on our side uh we are in an isolated area we have it controlled at this point we have our resources that are responding we have a visual on him i understand that you say that there's that there's tenant windows but as long as we can actually see him you know he's venting he's our rate he's upset for whatever reason some people when they're upset they do things but as long as we can stay positive stay neutral have time on our sides and allow our resources to come and assist us we can bring this to a peaceful resolution yeah were those those were pepper balls that were fired on the uh on the vehicle there that you you can see right now it looks like there were a couple that hit and then there was another another round of pepper balls it looked like that they fired but i don't know if they were completely effective uh and at what point is there tear gas as well and um basically what's the next move here you're talking about just yeah go ahead we definitely have several options and that's the great thing about the sheriff's department our deputies are constantly trained in various lesson lethal um weapons basically we want to distract him we want to be able to actually have him surrender peacefully you know we have a reverence for life and that's what we want to do we want to distract him and we want to basically convey the message that hey give up peacefully so that we can bring this to an end and at this time the deputies are doing exactly what they're trained to do uh they are utilizing their less than lethal options they're usually they're utilizing their options they're utilizing the time uh everything that they've uh trained to do this is exactly what they're doing we haven't seen a weapon we haven't seen anything a gun anything of that nature we've just seen an extremely erratic and it looks upset irritated driver here and uh he has been shaking his fist out the window and even flipped the officers the bird a little while ago i believe i did see that he was throwing money so wild and wild in terms of that but we haven't seen any weapons but i understand officer safety in the general public safeties is very important is there anything else that you know about the is the vehicle stolen do you know that all we know is it's a dui suspect at this point is can you shed any light on that deputy right it's a reckless dude suspect this is a black nissan it's a four-door and it they've been on pr they've been uh pursuing this vehicle for maybe a little over an hour now but what i can tell you at this point is that although he's irate although he's upset although he may be yelling he can do all that and we can work with that we are trained professionals we listen we hear we observe but we also utilize our resources and that like i said that's what these deputies are trying to do they have time on their side uh the safety uh of everyone like i said including the suspect is paramount and at this point um even from the onset of this this suspect has a choice to give up at any time and he could bring this to a close he can bring us to an end if he still chooses and you can wait it out for for minutes or for hours or for the rest of the night you know it's it's it's necessary that we ultimately do not sacrifice maybe uh time or anything for safety safety is paramount so however long this is going to take for us to go through our options our resources that we are trying to utilize that's what we're going to use that's what's going to determine uh when this person gets taken into custody we're not going to rush into judgment we're not going to rush into any irrational actions everything's going to be our trained protocol that's that we're going to perform here and that's what you're going to see deputy juanita navarro we appreciate your time is there anything else you want to say that i didn't ask you yeah you know it's it people have bad days he's in his car everyone has bad days but to put the public in harm's way through a pursuit regardless of how fast or how slow it is going you know you have to think about other people before you think about yourself in situations like this putting the public putting deputies putting yourself in danger so think twice you may be upset but this isn't worth it this is always it deputy navarro we appreciate your time thank you and want to bring dennis design back in thank you so much deputy thank you and let's set the stage one more time in case you're just watching an early edition of the fox 11 news at five o'clock this is a live picture of palmdale right now from sky fox overhead the end of a very slow speed chase but every bit as dramatic as a high-speed chase a driver here hit a spike strip a little over an hour ago he's been driving on tires that were shredded rims in residential neighborhoods on palmdale all the way down pear blossom highway he was on surface streets and neighborhoods turned off into and into these this dirt road about 30 minutes ago and hit some grade where his vehicle was basically no longer able to continue uh the the officers that were giving chase have taken the defensive position behind we may show you that pepper ball video once again the the driver very irate very upset he was shaking his fist shaking he was even hanging out the window here his vehicle wouldn't continue the officers have been clearly asking him to come out or at least to communicate and uh a few minutes ago they fired a round of pepper balls that hit and then a few moments and a few minutes later fired another round of pepper balls but uh this driver this gentleman hold up inside that vehicle we believe it's just him we don't believe that that he has a weapon but with the tinted windows there and we understand the officers there obviously aren't going to take that risk they don't know so they have taken up a defensive position there's even one flank to the right that you can't see right now but many weapons trained we haven't seen a canine but other than the pepper balls haven't seen an effective basically forcing that gentleman out of his car they said they're gonna they're gonna wait it out dennis are you still with us i'm still here today right they're gonna wait it out here and uh as you were saying dennis nightfall it's 4 15. it's not quite dark but it will start to get dark soon and that presents an additional challenge as officers are trying to figure out hey if it's just that man in there is there a weapon and it's it's very hard with those tinted windows but uh he's irate he's a dui suspect that's all we know at this point and officers are just trying to have a a peaceful resolution fear and obviously the hope is for protection for the general public protection for the officers and even protection for the life of this suspect exactly and as darkness sets in i'm sure they have additional resources responding deputy navarro so eloquently explained what they're doing at this particular time they have light trucks they can bring in light trucks to illuminate that particular area so darkness is not going to really hamper the deputies and doing what they need to do they'll bring in their special tactics or swat team members they have other equipment they can utilize that other equipment so they have the capacity to hold off and do what they need to do with non-lethal force and not only the use of force and this does not escalate to a use of force that would be other than non non-deadly force so whether it be the the bean bags or the other items they use they'll continue with that again they've got the air cover they may be bringing in additional personnel from the special tactics by helicopter due to the distance in the time where they're dispatched from so as we see a chopper coming in now they'll probably have multiple choppers from the sheriff's department addition the media choppers overhead but they have the capacity to hold off as long as they need to again they're not going to rush the vehicle they're going to wait for the special equipment the special personnel light trucks if necessary and they're probably already mustering those resources as we see it looks like some of those deputies uh are going to be launched from the helicopter dennis let me just let me just jump in here for just a moment the word we're getting is that these are paramedics yeah you said that maybe the the sheriff's special enforcement team that they were choppering out to the scene here in palmdale uh but we're getting word that these are paramedics that are being that are going to be lowered down uh to the ground there as well so there were some pepper balls fired non-lethal rounds as you said uh want to have paramedics on scene on standby there this is standard protocol dennis well in a situation like this you want to have all the resources at your immediate disposal again they're in an isolated area they're away from the major highways they're an isolated area so they want to have whatever resources are necessary so they will muster those resources and again i don't know how far they are in that particular community of palmdale but obviously if they're coming from remote areas they want to bring in as quickly as possible so it's not unusual to bring in the huey helicopters and launch the deputies paramedics or whatever from the helicopter because of the time to get with traffic you can imagine what traffic is going to be like going up the highway highway 14 and a palmdale so as we see they're going to launch from the sky and this is not unusual the tactics are trained for this they know exactly what they're doing this is part of the train that they go through so these were deputies it's a heck of a way to get to work well this is how they do it this is how they're trained so they'll be there standing by they'll have the equipment as you see the they have all kinds of equipment with them on them they will launch from there but i can imagine that the other deputies that are going to be responding by helicopter due to the distance and if they're coming from downtown los angeles or whatever it's a long drive in traffic so it's not unusual to utilize those resources lapd does this on occasion they need to get people there quickly and fortunately law enforcement fire service they have this equipment special equipment for this particular purpose so i'm sure light trucks have been ordered additional personnel have been ordered and you think why do they use all these resources for one person well they're not going to turn around and get in their cars and drive away this person's uh getting a lot of crime activity uh on their record and they may been through the system before so it's not only a dui there's a number of other violations that are now going to be uh chopped up against this person whether they've been in prison before their criminal history but as we see what's happening now live on on fox 11 we see the deputies that are paramedics being launched from the helicopter and there'll be a number of that will repel from the helicopter on the ground again they're all trained for this they go through extensive training they've got a lot of equipment you see the backpack so they're well prepared for this it doesn't happen every day but when it's needed they're there and they respond and as we see they're there and they're landing uh the personnel the helicopter is gonna stay airborne but the personnel will go forward and do what they need to do to assist those ground units again these are special personnel that are coming in specially trained for this particular situation they want to be well prepared to make sure any situation that takes place hi dennis it's christine devine joining you back here with this coverage along with dan cohen here we're watching this shot of the deputies who basically had to stay at attention here for a period of time as i watched them there taking cover behind a vehicle for their own protection their own safety you really do have to still stay alert thoughts on that well absolutely you do just seen and what happened they drake trained for this the law enforcement officers trained for this you don't use it every day you don't use it every month but when the necessary you have that training and it swings into action as we see they're deployed they're going to maintain control over this situation he's not going to go anywhere they're not going to rush the vehicle they're going to bring in additional personnel special personnel so what we have is a standoff it's a typical standoff where he's in the car he's not causing any harm to anyone at this particular time they're not gathering pedestrians around or residents or business people again the benefit on this it's an isolated area off the beaten path in an isolated area so what happens now is time is on the deputy side you see a number of cars that are lined up deputy vehicles that are lined up and they're all there deployed and they're backing each other up and then what happens now is a specialized equipment will arrive they will then start to move forward and do what they need to do to get him out of that vehicle so they will bring in additional equipment to utilize that the deputies and the vehicles and the explorers they have certain equipment to utilize so this particular situation takes specialized equipment and that's i'm sure enroute from the l.a county sheriff's department all right dennis well i was sitting here on the set waiting before we actually took this live to see what was going to happen with this slow speed pursuit slow because the tires had been blown out because of a spike strip yet the driver continued to drive and here we are in this rural area like you said it's off the 14 freeway in the palmdale area and as we're coming up on rush hour any motorists going through that area on the 14 might see some kind of police activity off in the distance here you know you and i have covered so many pursuits and to see the helicopter there like you said is unusual my question for you though is paramedics being brought to the scene dan was reporting that they were dropping down paramedics what does that tell you well not unusual to have that at this particular situation they've got deputies that are paramedics they do a lot of the search and rescue so they're going to be there to maintain in case there is a need for them in case the individual is injured in case a deputy is injured to get a paramedic unit up there with the apparatus it takes time so they're on the side of caution they want to make sure that everything is covered there's a textbook example of how you handle a situation like this normally the person will get out of the car put their hands up get on the ground uh be taken into custody and that would put it to an end in this particular case we know the person's resisting obstructing delaying the deputies and doing their job they're not going to let him go uh the games he's playing back and forth in and out open the window closer and i think the window's now down for good because of the devices they've deployed on the car so they're just standing by they're not going to do anything until there's a necessity but what they're doing is mustering up the resources in the event the situation so they're ready there at the scene again as we heard from deputy navarro the concern of the safety of the individual or the suspect in addition to the deputies but again i want to emphasize this is an isolated area so it's an ideal situation if you have a situation like this where you don't have pedestrians and bystanders and blocking off traffic this is isolated off the beaten path so you can secure the area i'm sure they're doing that in addition to the resources whether they come in by air or come in by vehicle they're calling for additional personnel specialized personnel that will be here for that particular purpose but they've got to make sure that all the resources are there he can get out of the car right now surrender and the pursuit's over the he's into custody everything's fine we want that to happen as quickly as possible but as long as he's resisting they've got to be ready for any eventuality including darkness but they'll bring in a light truck in case of darkness whatever the case may be they want the resources there on site i can't help but think dennis what a waste of resources when you think that they have to bother to bring out a light truck because it's going to become dark all those law enforcement personnel the helicopter well it's going to be thousands and thousands of dollars when you look at the resources you look at the deputies that are already deployed there the radio calls aren't being answered those deputies have come off patrol so the area that they're covering part of l.a county the north part of l.a county the deputies that are there they're not for west hollywood they're not there from carson they're there from that immediate area so responding to calls obviously is not as efficient as it should be or could be because they're deployed for this and you can't just have two deputies there unknown what this individual has at his disposal so you want to have the resources and it's it's costly it's very costly the helicopter is expensive everything they're going to ring is expensive but we pay our taxes so they can have the resources and they need those resources for a situation like this you and i have covered a lot of pursuits seldom do we see an isolated area like this normally it's on a surface street in the business area you've got pedestrians other situations to contend with right this is rather unusual but for the safety of the public this is paramount in safety for the public you don't have people in jeopardy you don't have children walking off from school so that's the good part about it but again those resources have to be deployed dennis all this for one individual yeah let me interrupt you because we have sergeant bob daisy on the line from the la county sheriff's department sergeant we are witnessing uh quite a show force here by your department from the personnel there in the vehicles but also the helicopter can you talk to me about the helicopter drop yeah sure not a problem um what you saw was our rescue air 5 helicopter actually responding to the location and deploying the tactical paramedics anytime we do any kind of operation like this especially in rural areas we try to get as much resources as possible to the location and what we did was we uh dropped a couple of a rescue paramedics to the location to render aid to any deputy that gets injured and to the suspect once the suspect is safely apprehended because we did use uh less than lethal force on him all right so my question is uh obviously you know it's rush hour traffic um possibly out in that area it's a little bit of a rural area were there not paramedics closer or where did these paramedics come from well fortunately for us our department is large enough that we have rescue paramedics tactical paramedics that are on our rescue helicopters uh when the rescue helicopter is in the air we deploy two rescue helicopters during the day and we're able to use them for a multitude of different incidents whether it's actual rescues in the mountains rescues out in the water or for tactical situations like this where we need medical assistance to stage and be ready for whatever comes our way well i know the big goal is that this ends peacefully do you have any insight on this suspect or his condition or i know it was initially a dui call where he continued to drive on the rims of that vehicle for a very long time and basically got stuck here couldn't go up the hill what are you learning about this suspect do you know who he is at this moment we still don't know who he is what we can tell you is that he is apparently a hispanic male suspect inside this vehicle that's still refusing to come out he seems agitated and irate however we don't know why yet we do have a deputies on scene that are trying to communicate with this guy to try to get him to come out so we can resolve this peacefully however not much is known about the suspect at this time so are you getting any read from your people there on the scene as to his condition like is he speaking to the deputies is he saying anything to them do they feel like he is under the influence of something i mean his behavior is obviously bizarre putting his hands out of the window rolling down the window opening the car door at some point looked like he was even throwing money out of the car at some point when he was on the road but look like right now i'm looking at him it looks like he's interacting with the deputies or somehow he's agitated uh yeah our deputies are trying to conduct an initial assessment as you can tell there's quite a bit of distance between the vehicle where the suspect is in as well as our deputies who are a car length and a half two car lengths back so what they're trying to do is actually get an accurate read and communicate with this guy however that makes it a little bit difficult so all we want to do with this suspect at the moment is just to be able to inherently inform him to keep his hands visible and to calm down and ultimately come out and surrender to us so we can conduct a better assessment we don't know if he's under the influence of any kind of narcotic we don't know if he's under the influence of alcohol we don't know if there's any kind of mental illness here fortunately for us we have time on our side it is a rural area it is an area that doesn't impact the public his safety is paramount as well as our safety is so we're going to take our time and try to get him out peacefully safely as uninjured as possible so we can conduct our assessment uh get him the medical care he needs and if there is any kind of mental illness here get him the appropriate treatment that he requires in order to help him out sergeant basically we have all covered a lot of pursuits here in southern california this is one of the more interesting endings for the moment in fact that we are at this rural spot this location here near palmdale with this one of your vehicles right there the driver obviously can apparently get out of the car if he wanted to it's 4 30 now it's still light out what happens when it starts to get dark what's the game plan here well fortunately for us our department has such a vast scale that we can employ different types of tools tactics and resources to allow us to keep this thing going if it does get into the nighttime hours we have off-road lighting that we can apply to the situation we have lighting on our helicopter that can come and illuminate the area and we'll utilize any resource we can to take our time to make sure that we can get this guy out peacefully as we pull out to this wide shot we see the number of personnel who are there who are involved in this you have that helicopter i i get back to what i brought up with sergeant dennis zein thinking about the tremendous waste of resources here being used to bring this to a close i think viewers might look at this and ask is there anything law enforcement can do to to move in on this guy or how does it happen here well ultimately what we do is we utilize whatever resource we can in the field to uh respond to any kind of situation that is when we have a dynamic situation that's rapidly evolving and we don't know what we're going to get ourselves into as time progresses and as this situation begins to evolve in front of our eyes the on-scene supervisor and the on-scene incident commander will start doing an assessment of what resources they need what resources they can dispatch to go respond to other calls and what else they can do to start controlling this situation a little bit more so in your shot as you can see we have uh tactical paramedics we have tactical scouts from our special enforcement bureau they're speaking with the on-scene uh supervisor and the unseen incident commander they're beginning to conduct a game plan that they could use to try to bring this to a peaceful resolution now all of this is happening as we're deploying additional resources to the scene to try to get this guy to come out of the car ultimately our crisis negotiation team will respond we'll try to get him in communication with our crisis negotiation team and hopefully he'll be able to get out of the car but until then we'll have a multitude of different resources a multitude of different personnel on scene standing by in case they're needed for anything well i'm guessing with that crisis negotiating team the goal is to talk this guy into to surrendering that he's not going anywhere this is not going to end any differently than him being taken into custody and that's what they do they train to de-escalate situations sometimes you can communicate with somebody by cell phone but it doesn't sound like you have that opportunity here at the moment it doesn't appear that we have that opportunity however we do have a different multitude of resources including landline telephone cell phones that act as radio that we can transfer people back and forth and you know we'll try to find a way to get him some type of communication tool so he's able to properly communicate with us and hopefully begin that dialogue because ultimately his safety our safety that's our goal we want to make sure that everybody goes home safe that no one gets injured and we're able to uh basically bring a status to this thing and close it out certainly erratic behavior there where he continued to drive and look at the look at the tire there he had four of those where he's riding on the rims for a very long time moving his hands in and out of the window there of that vehicle every opportunity to come out so really you wonder why he's still staying there inside that car what kind of history he has what kind of past criminal background or not that he might have um and that's those are all questions that i guess you all are trying to figure out that's exactly correct i mean as we go through these dynamic incidents and luckily for us this was becoming a little bit static it's still a high risk incident for the los angeles county sheriff's department and our deputies you know there are a lot of unknown variables that we are still dealing with when it comes to this type of situation we don't know if there's other people in the vehicle we don't know what type of influence or what he's under the influence of so these different kinds of things happen we don't know if he's armed um multitude of different reasons why we cannot just approach this vehicle at the moment and initiating contact and communicating with him is key at this moment the only thing we can is our radio pa speakers on the vehicles to try to communicate them and have them get to step out however based on the terrain based on the distance i don't know if our deputies are effectively listening to what he's communicating back so this is still a high risk intense situation for our personnel yeah so bizarre well there are license plates there on the vehicle is there an attempt by your people to i mean i don't know what protocol is do do you try to reach out to family members or relatives or get a peg on his address to kind of see what might be going on to see if somebody might know something know him know what why he's not getting out of the car oh yeah we uh we're utilizing every possible research tool and resource that we have in order to find out more about this person and gain a better uh understanding of what he's going through and what's going on the personal identifying information attached license plate is a tool that we utilize to try to do a work up on this person however one of the things that we have to take consideration is the person driving the vehicle might not necessarily be the person that the vehicle is registered to so this could be anything from just a reckless dui suspect to a possible unreported stolen vehicle and that just leads to the uncertainty of what's happening out in the field and the things that our deputies have to deal with sergeant basically do you have an idea as to what the average length of a pursuit is i'm thinking there are so many that never even make the air because they end so quickly but then you have those in these long standoffs where you're on for hours at times is there an average when it comes to pursuits for us we go we deal with a multitude of different county areas a multitude of different contract cities and we have on average anywhere from 1100 to approximately 2 000 deputies that are on patrol 24 hours a day you know through various shifts we see our fair share of pursuits we see our fair share of dynamic incidents and each one is treated individually because each one is different um the circumstances behind every pursuit pertain just to that pursuit and that's what makes these things um so dynamic and difficult to manage at times yeah fortunate fortunately for us this pursuit was at a very slow speed fortunately for us the spike strip that was deployed had a very positive effect on the vehicle and we had enough tires that went flat and it was able to slow this vehicle down so now it's just a waiting game for us and um hopefully this guy comes to a senses or we're able to communicate to him effectively and he gets out of the car yeah because you think that this could be somebody's brother their son perhaps a father you just don't know you make a good point that that spike strip was effective so we've seen the deputies and law enforcement police get in place and position to deploy those spike strips and they sometimes don't work because the driver is able to drive right around them here looks like he got all four tires and he's riding on those rims when it comes to pursuits and your deputies in training i know it's part of regular training because pursuits are such a part of southern california now how much training do your deputies go through if you don't mind sharing when it comes to pursuits is it annual training do you revisit it every year well our deputy sheriffs are constantly trained when it comes to our emergency vehicle operations and pursuits um it starts way back in the academy when we send them to our emergency vehicle operations center and they get a driver's training there they get emergency vehicle operations training there they go on a track and we do mock pursuits and then from there when they go out to patrol and they're assigned with their training officer they have training driving the vehicle they get used to driving the vehicle in a real-time scenario they have someone that's monitoring them as they start to drive and then in addition to that we have a series of table top exercises that we do during our briefings we discuss pursuits we discuss the pursuit policy what's legally available what's not available to us based on our pursuit policies and things of that nature all of this culminates to the actual pursuit that we see on tv at times and the pursuits that we don't see on tv at times you know it gives the the deputies on our department the ability to constantly think on their feet and identify all the various scenarios that could potentially happen in a pursuit so when they actually are involved in one they know what to do sergeant basie dan cohen rejoining the conversation here on fox 11 you're watching a live picture from sky fox along with christine devine sergeant basie what do you make of this driver's uh his his behavior at this point he's got the window down he's sort of hanging out he had his arms out a moment ago went back inside the vehicle he's hanging out again uh i can't see what he has in his hand is that a phone that he's putting outside his maybe a sunglass i can't make out what that is but what do you make of his behavior it looks like he he is hearing the law enforcement officers commands um they clearly they must be asking him to get out of the vehicle let's have a peaceful conclusion here we haven't seen anything along those lines and it looks like he's putting a hat on um he was pointing at things a moment ago he was he was he was shaking his fist earlier uh just what do you make of his his behavior well obviously you can tell that his behavior is erratic at the moment and it appears that he could potentially be under the influence of a controlled substance under the influence of alcohol or there might be some kind of mental illness we don't know and based on all these behaviors and based on all these actions that the suspect is portraying at the moment we deem this to be a very high risk situation so we're taking every precaution that we possibly can ultimately we won't know until we actually talk to him and we make contact with them but this could be just someone that's also very very distraught and that's why we're taking our time to do this there's never a scenario uh sergeant basie where you would substitute time for safety correct we're in an isolated area here there's nothing but open road ahead of him however the vehicle is immobilized and not able to ride you can see the that all four tires for the most part gone just some shreds there and rims and uh the officers are willing to play that waiting game it becomes a little different in a more precarious situation when the sun goes down but we can see this gentleman gesturing it looks like he he's he's talking he he is playing games with the officers there to some degree he is at least able to hear and i can't tell if he's rolling the window back up or if the window's gone maybe that's just my glare i apologize for that but uh it looks like the officers the strategy at this point is just to wait right wait continue to communicate and you made a point earlier sergeant basie about uh christine asked a great question you know who this driver is this dui suspect at what point would you try to engage a family member a sibling a spouse a loved one to say hey it's time come on out how would that work well that decision is going to be made by the on-scene incident commander and our crisis negotiation team and like i made mention before um we still haven't positively identified this person now okay the vehicle itself could be registered to somebody but that person not necessarily the person that's driving right so until we actually talk to this person and we identify who he is we can utilize the various tools and resources you know in order to bring this to a peaceful resolution but it's also that decision ultimately comes up to our crisis negotiation team once they establish contact with this person and once they start building that rapport because like i said these are all tense situations no one really knows what's going through this person's mind at the moment and the only thing that we want to do is to be able to safely get him out of the vehicle safely detain him get him the medical attention he needs because we did use pepper balls in the vehicle and once that's done try to see what kind of help he needs and basically detain him and figure out what's going on it looks like the pepper balls were mildly effective if i can say just from from my observation here we saw him put his hands over his face and over his eyes like they maybe had irritated him but at what point sergeant basically would you elevate from pepper balls to something you know what's next in the tear gas to your canister shooting out that back window at what point would you would you take it to the next level well like i said that's that's going to be a determination on the unseen incident commander once he receives all the information from his people in the field once our tactical medics get on scene once our special enforcement bureau gets on scene and our crisis negotiation during the uh planning stage of this incident they're going to make a determination on what the next course of action is and what the best course of action is for everybody that's involved so you know ultimately you know we're standing by planning prepping for any possible scenario that's happening here and um this guy here hopefully does come to his senses and he does uh peacefully surrender and then we can take him into custody and hopefully bring this to a peaceful resolution we don't believe there is anyone else in the vehicle is that correct uh we don't believe but we never know until we actually search the vehicle out and we don't we don't believe or do you know or has have you been able to hear we don't believe that we have to assume that he may have a weapon we haven't heard anything along those lines though yeah we haven't heard that he may have a weapon or not however we can't take that chance we have to assume that he is armed we have to assume that he is going to potentially hurt us and it's based upon his actions that dictate our actions he's the one that has to let us know he wants to peacefully resolve this also right you know so as soon as he gives us identifiers or he makes furtive movements that show he wants to be peaceful then we can go ahead and bring him peacefully however this is a very tense and dynamic situation for us as you can tell the windows are tinted and they're very very dark making it difficult for us to see in there earlier in the scenario he had the window all the way up in the front making it very difficult for us to see the use of less than lethal tactics through the use of a pepper ball gun you know was able to disperse some type of pepper ball powder into the vehicle hopefully trying to get him to gain compliance but it also helped him helped us to get him to lower the window giving us a better vantage point of this suspect inside the vehicle now with that window down we're able to see in the vehicle make it safer for us make it safer for him and it also gives us the ability to try to start that dialogue with him however ultimately at the moment we're still standing by and hopefully he'd start that dialogue yeah sergeant basie thank you we uh it looks like the window has been sort of rolled back oh he's pushing it back down uh or the window has gone back down his hat i believe he may have some sunglasses on all we know at this point is that we have a dui suspect believed to be hispanic this is in palmdale a chase that started around three o'clock is approaching two hours now and for the better part of an hour we've been seeing officers guns drawn trained on this man tires shredded and gone from spike strips he was driving at very slow speeds on rims through neighborhoods there ended up here on peaceful valley road in case you're familiar with that area in palmdale officers have been talking coaxing trying to get the gentleman to come out they did fire a couple of rounds of pepper balls that look like they were mildly effective although not enough to get the gentleman out of the vehicle all we know dui suspect we don't know if there's a weapon we don't believe there's another person in that vehicle but we don't know the answer to that question for sure we are going to step away from our coverage here on sky fox here in fox 11 as well and we will be watching the scenario watching the situation play out we will be live once again here in just a few minutes for the fox 11 news at five o'clock that's in 13 minutes from now we're going to step away for just a few moments but we encourage you to tune back in thank you for watching fox 11 back in just a few moments this has been the fox 11 news special report cool armored vehicle just arriving as well you

Channel: FOX 11 Los Angeles

Views: 598,772

Keywords: police chase, police pursuit, Palmdale, DUI, very slow pursuit, slow pursuit, very slow police chase, slow police chase, DUI driver, dirt road, dirt road police chase, flat tires, flat tire police chase, spike strips, palmdale police chase

Id: vvDx9NNLi1c

Length: 126min 4sec (7564 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 23 2019