A man pursued by police on suspicion of DUI was in custody Sunday following a standoff with Los Angeles Police officers that shut down all lanes of the Harbor (110) Freeway near Exposition Park and created a massive traffic jam as vehicles were directed onto surface streets.
Thousands of vehicles whose drivers expected late-night free-flowing freeway traffic were suddenly caught in parking-lot conditions as they inched to an exit under CHP orders. The entire event lasted almost an hour until the suspect was finally arrested at 11:22 p.m. Saturday on the Harbor Freeway at Exposition Boulevard.
The pursuit started at about 10:30 p.m. at Vernon Avenue and Main Street when officers saw the man driving erratically at 20 mph. The man drove the black car northbound on the Harbor Freeway and turned southbound at Exposition Boulevard.
Police used a spike strip to stop the car and SWAT officers boxed it in with their vehicles. The 38-year-old man — said to have a police record — reportedly was taunting officers. He could be seen hanging out of the driver’s side window talking on a cellphone.
He armed himself with a long stick and told police he had taken crystal methamphetamine, according to broadcast reports.
The drama unfolded as a collection of broadcast helicopters hovered overhead filming the action.
Northbound traffic was backed nearly 10 miles to at least Gardena and southbound traffic was backed up for several miles.
At the time of the stop, hemmed-in motorists were told to abandon their cars on the freeway, broadcasters said.
Southbound traffic on the 110 was moving a few minutes after the suspect’s arrest, authorities said, but travel was slow into the early morning Sunday due to the backup.
— City News Service