Santa Monica residents who live near the intersection of Stanford Street and Santa Monica Boulevard were woken early Thursday morning to the sounds of police helicopters and sirens after a car chase came to a dramatic end in the neighborhood.
According to reports, the chase involved a man in his 30s who had allegedly stolen a BMW 6-Series convertible at around 1 am in West Hollywood and began fleeing west along Santa Monica Boulevard.
A Santa Monica resident told The Mirror he and his fiancé were awakened by a low flying helicopter using its spotlight to circle Stanford.
“They made a few announcements over their loudspeaker but we couldn’t understand it clearly,” the resident said. “This went on for 20 minutes or more.”
The sheriff’s helicopter loud speaker was ordering the suspect to surrender, who was surrounded by sheriff’s vehicles who had pursued the suspect.
At about 2:30 am, deputies made the decision to fire beanbag-type rounds at the car to break its windows so flash bang grenades could be thrown into the vehicle, according to reports.
The suspect finally exited the passenger side door after tear gas was fired into the BMW.
He was arrested without incident and no-one was injured.
Click here to view Loudlabs News video footage of the incident.
