Gun Waving Chase Suspect Crashes Into Bank, Triggers Standoff

WOODLAND HILLS, CA — Police arrested a man Tuesday after he crashed his car into a Chase bank in Woodland Hills, triggering a standoff with police, following a pursuit during which he waved a weapon out of his car window and pointed it at officers, authorities said.

But the man never opened fire, said Detective Meghan Aguilar, an LAPD spokeswoman.

Police began pursuing the man for reckless driving, at which point he allegedly pointed a gun at the police officer pursuing him, said Lt. Carl Taylor, the watch commander at the LAPD's Van Nuys Station. The chase began around midnight.

The pursuit ended when the man slammed his black BMW into the Chase bank at Ventura Boulevard and De Soto Avenue. He was driving at such a high rate of speed that the vehicle fully pierced the building, Taylor said.

Officers and their SWAT Team colleagues took up positions outside the bank, believed to be at 20900 Ventura Blvd., as they awaited crisis negotiators. The man was armed and moving around inside the bank, Taylor said.

Police utilized the man's daughter to coax her father out of the building using the bank's PA system, LAPD Sgt. Felipe Vasquez of the Van Nuys Station.

The man sent a text to a family member telling them that he was going to kill himself and to "watch the news," Vasquez said. Media reports said he's been having money problems, and Monday was his birthday.

The extent of the suspect's injuries, if any, was not immediately reported, but there were no other people injured in the crash, Taylor said.

The man's name was not immediately released.

City News Service