Innocent Driver Killed, 3 Others Injured in Crash amid Police Chase in California

A woman was killed and three other people were injured after a police chase in the Los Angeles area ended in a crash.

According to reports from CBS News, NBC Los Angeles and KTLA, Los Angeles Police Department officers were chasing after a suspect who allegedly stole a Mercedes-Benz in Winnetka, Calif., located in the San Fernando Valley, on the afternoon of Saturday, Nov. 23.

An LAPD spokesperson told the outlets that the car chase began when officers tried to pull over the Mercedes-Benz because the license plate did not match the description of the vehicle to which it was supposed to belong, LAPD officer Tony Im said, per FOX LA.

The driver — whom police identified only as a man in his 40s, per KTLA — allegedly took off at a high speed down a main street.

“They waited for backup and our airship to come and support them in that traffic stop, but suddenly that Mercedes took off at a high rate of speed,” LAPD Detective Meghan Aguilar told CBS News.

“As soon as he began to drive erratically, giving the officers the indication that he realized that they were behind him, that’s when we had to act accordingly,” LAPD Deputy Chief Don Graham added to ABC 7.

The driver of the Mercedes sped away from police, and just one minute later, he crashed into a Tesla going through a green light at the intersection of Saticoy Street and Mason Avenue.

“The light had turned green for the east and west traffic on Saticoy,” Graham told KTLA. “The suspect vehicle crashed into the Tesla as it was heading southbound at a high rate of speed, and the Tesla then crashed into the other two vehicles.”

Although bystanders told CBS that the driver of the Mercedes attempted to flee the scene after the crash, officers arrested him almost immediately, and he was transported to a local hospital for minor injuries, police said.

Authorities added that the Tesla driver, only identified as a woman in her 40s, died at the scene. Three people in the two other cars experienced minor injuries.

According to the outlets, the Mercedes could be seen flipped on its side after the crash, and the white Tesla was mangled.

“It was bad,” Maria Toribio, a local who witnessed the accident, told KTLA. “That was my initial reaction, my stomach started to churn.”

“This is the kind of tragedy that will live with this family forever, so close to the holidays,” Graham told KTLA of the crash. “It is unfathomable to think about.”

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Locals have identified the intersection where this crash took place as a frequent source of car accidents in the Valley. The Los Angeles Daily News reported in February that another major crash took place on Saticoy just a few blocks away, which left one man dead and another woman critically injured, per the L.A. Fire Department.

In 2021, CBS News reported that two people involved in yet another crash on Saticoy and Mason were hospitalized with severe burns after one vehicle hit several parked cars before catching fire.