A 71-year-old motorist described by police as a serial sexual assault suspect led officers on an extensive pursuit from the Harbor area to Culver City to West Los Angeles Thursday, occasionally tossing items from the SUV and repeatedly speeding up to avoid attempted PIT maneuvers.
The driver began eluding officers mid-afternoon Thursday in the port area, initially heading north on the Harbor (110) Freeway before transitioning onto the San Diego (405) Freeway and later traveling on streets in Inglewood and Westchester.
Investigators identified the motorist as Stephen Paul Gale, who was charged with four counts of aggravated rape, two counts of kidnapping, and one count of armed robbery involving two women in Framingham, Massachusetts, at a convenience store in 1989, KTLA reported, citing information from WFXT, the Fox station in Boston .
Gale entered a Hit or Miss Store on December 27, 1989, where he displayed a .357 Magnum handgun before allegedly forcing two female employees to the back of the store and compelling them to remove their clothing, placing the women in separate rooms.
“He sexually assaulted both women while holding the gun to their heads. When the suspect returned to the front of the store, the victims fled out the rear fire door to a nearby home,” Middlesex County District Attorney Marian Ryan told reporters.
Investigators connected Gale with the alleged offenses sometime in May.
Police on several occasions attempted to deploy spike strips to stop Gale, who generally adhered to speed limits and even stopped at red lights during the chase. At one point in the Westchester area, Gale pulled into a gas station and appeared to throw something out of the red SUV toward a man who was pumping gas. It was unclear what Gale may have thrown.
After winding through more streets — during which Gale would accelerate when police attempted to approach and use a PIT maneuver to spin the SUV to a stop — he again entered the congested northbound San Diego Freeway through the West Los Angeles area.
Gale eventually made his way into Westwood, where police successfully deployed a spike strip that slowly flattened the driver’s side tires of the SUV. He eventually came to a stop near Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center and exited the vehicle, appearing to be in some type of medical distress as officers took him into custody.
Gale was wanted for questioning in a series of other sexual assaults that occurred between 1989 and 1990, according to the U.S. Marshals Service.