The California Highway Patrol was monitoring a driver headed out of San Diego on Sunday afternoon, in a high-speed pursuit that turned into a LoJack monitoring situation.
Our Newschopper4 was over the pursuit on the 5 Freeway around 3:20 p.m.
The car contained possible shoplifting suspects, wanted for an incident in San Diego, according to the CHP. The driver could be seen throwing a bag of merchandise out of the window at one point early in the pursuit.
The CHP helicopter was following the vehicle, but cancelled the pursuit once the drive made it out of San Diego due to the erratic and unsafe driving. They continued to monitor the vehicle through LoJack.
The driver, traveling in a light gold or beige sedan, hit speeds up to 111 miles per hour.
Sideswipe damage to the driver’s side headlight and fender were visible on the car as it sped past other drivers on the freeway. The driver moved erratically, rapidly moving from the far left to far right lane and weaving in and out of cars.
Just before reaching the 210 Interchange out of Sylmar, the driver sideswiped two more cars on the 5 Freeway.
The driver made their way to the 14 Freeway in Santa Clarita.
There were reports that a passenger accompanied the driver of the vehicle, but it was difficult to determine from the exterior of the vehicle. It appeared from NewsChopper4’s position in the air that there were two passengers in the car, one in the passenger seat and one in the rear of the car.
The driver went through periods of safer driving before returning to their erratic pattern, splitting lanes and speeding past other cars.
By the time the driver was in South Antelope Valley, CHP Newhall decided to send units out, in an attempt to gain a visual on the car. Units briefly made an appearance, and authorities were still monitoring the car, but those units quickly pulled away.
The driver at one point was driving on the shoulder of the freeway to get around cars at high speeds.
NewsChopper4 discontinued its following of the pursuit when the driver reached Avenue D and 110th Street, heading west still with no CHP units following around 4:12 p.m.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
