Police pursuit with infant in car livestreamed by driver in California
LOS ANGELES (KTLA) - A man wanted in an alleged armed robbery who led authorities on a dangerous high-speed pursuit with his girlfriend and 2-month-old daughter in the car on Wednesday livestreamed the chase on his Instagram account.
The incident began with a trio of suspects who were wanted in connection with an armed robbery in Beverly Hills.
Two of the suspects, according to Nexstar's KTLA, were quickly taken into custody.
The third suspect, though, reportedly had his girlfriend pick him up.
That car was later spotted in Hawthorne, which led to a high-speed chase with officers from the Hawthorne Police Department. The chase was eventually taken over by deputies with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department when it entered their jurisdiction.
The suspect made his way into downtown Los Angeles where KTLA's helicopter captured him hitting speeds of 80 mph on surface streets, coming dangerously close to hitting a Metro bus, running red lights and stop signs, as well as weaving through heavy traffic and driving on the wrong side of the road.
While viewers watched the events unfold on live television, the drama playing out inside the vehicle was being streamed on the driver's Instagram account.
In that footage, the suspect’s girlfriend can be heard demanding that he pull over, screaming for him to let her and his child out of the car.
“Just let us out the car,” she’s heard saying.
“This is sheriffs, they going to kill me,” he responds.
"You’re not thinking about your baby right now,” she says. “You’re fixing to get your baby killed.”
“Bro, I don’t want to go back to jail,” he says.
“It’s over, bro, it’s over,” she screams back. “It’s reality.”
Nearly an hour after the pursuit began, the suspect turned onto a dead-end street in the L.A. neighborhood of Blair Hills and was quickly surrounded by deputy patrol vehicles.
After a brief standoff, in which the suspect shows authorities his daughter is in the car, both he and his girlfriend, who was carrying their child, emerge from the vehicle.
The girlfriend was quickly escorted behind law enforcement lines where she surrendered the child, was handcuffed and put into a patrol vehicle.
The man was also cuffed and taken into custody.
The child was later seen in the care of a female deputy.
“I saw she was just crying, so I just wanted to soothe her and make sure she was okay,” deputy Adriana Martinez said. “It took me back to when I used to hold my daughter, making sure she was okay, and she’s just crying. It was just motherly instinct. I was glad I was there, and I was able to take care of her.”
The child was uninjured during the ordeal.
The mother was reunited with her daughter at the sheriff’s station. It’s unclear if she will face any charges.
The robbery suspect, who is on parole, will likely face several charges, including carjacking, robbery, kidnapping and being in possession of a firearm.