Global Courant
Suspects involved in a high-speed chase by law enforcement sparked a panic scene in Little Tokyo Saturday night after jumping out of their vehicle and sprinting through a popular shopping plaza, sparking a stampede of shoppers running for cover.
The chase began around 5:30 p.m. after Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputies attempted to pull over a vehicle allegedly involved in a crime in Gardena, Deputy Sheriff Michael Chen said. The driver rammed into a patrol car and took off, Chen said. He couldn’t confirm where the chase started, but it ended up in Little Tokyo, where at least two suspects abandoned the vehicle and ran into Japanese Village Plaza.
Video from Fox 11 Los Angeles showed a car speeding north on the 110 Freeway from South Los Angeles, colliding with another car heading east on 1st Street after reaching Little Tokyo. At least two people were seen getting out of the car and escaping to the plaza, a Japanese cultural display of restaurants, shops and markets decorated with bright paper lanterns. The video showed dozens of people running from the square in a chaotic run for cover.
Deputies set up a containment area to search for the suspects. At the end of Saturday, two suspects were still at large and one person had been apprehended, Chen said.
He had no further information on the identity of the suspects, whether they were armed or if anyone was injured in the incident.
Chris Sandoval, a barista at the square’s Cafe Dulce, said people stormed into his bakery and took shelter for about 15 minutes before law enforcement knocked on the window and signaled that all was safe. At about 6:50 p.m., he said, officers returned and told them to close for the day.
Sandoval said he didn’t know what triggered the law enforcement response, but that he saw deputies pull cars on 2nd Street to look inside. Helicopters circled overhead, with loud loudspeakers instructing the suspects to cooperate as “we’ve surrounded you,” he said. Police in SWAT gear also arrived.
The barista said he was not panicked by the commotion. “This is LA – things like this happen,” he said. “I wasn’t really tripping.”
