Glendale Police were in pursuit of the driver of a black Kia Thursday evening. It was later learned that the suspect was having a mental health crisis at the time of the chase.
The suspect was described as a man wearing a baseball cap, who was first spotted by officers doing donuts in the intersection of Western and San Fernando, prompting the pursuit.
A few minutes into the chase, the suspect again started spinning the vehicle, doing donuts after officers met up with the vehicle in another intersection.
After a short while, Glendale police decided to drop the pursuit and track the driver due to public safety concerns.
As the suspect continued to drive in a bizarre fashion, despite not being pursued by officers, they could be seen flashing their blinkers, hazards and a unique light kit equipped with strobe lights. They often drove on the wrong side of the road, swerved around uninvolved traffic and goaded other drivers in the area.
They were in tracking for some time before California Highway Patrol officers engaged in pursuit of the suspect at around 10 p.m.
Just after the pursuit restarted, the suspect clipped an uninvolved vehicle before speeding off from the scene when they then briefly entered SR-60 before erratically crossing all lanes of the roadway to entire Highway 101.
At around 10:15 p.m., the suspect reentered surface streets in Leimert Park, where they stopped at an intersection and rolled their window down to perform some sort of taunt towards officers before taking off again.
Authorities were given permission to attempt a PIT maneuver at around 10:20 p.m., and though several failed attempts were unable to stop the vehicle, the rear bumper of the suspect’s KIA Stinger was partially ripped off and could be seen hanging on by a thread as the chase continued.
As all of this was occurring, CHP officers were in contact with the suspect’s family, whom they claimed was in the midst of some sort of mental crisis, and that they did not believe he was armed.
The suspect continued their reckless driving before returning to an area believed to be in the vicinity of their residence, where officers were waiting.
He exited the vehicle at around 10:45 p.m., when he was promptly taken into custody.