A driver Tuesday evening led police on a hours-long chase the turned into a crawl at times from South Los Angeles to San Pedro, downtown Los Angeles and the San Fernando Valley.
Officers from the Los Angeles Police Department’s 77th Street Division gang unit began chasing the driver, who was accused of having a gun, about 7 p.m., said Officer William Cooper of LAPD.
Footage of the pursuit aired television helicopters showed multiple patrol vehicles chasing a silver car through the city as the driver ran red lights, drove on the wrong side of traffic and cut through parking lots to make turns.
About 7:45 p.m., the driver entered onto the southbound Harbor (110) Freeway from westbound Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard, and traveled to where the freeway ends in San Pedro before making a U-turn and heading back north.
NBC4 reported the driver was acting erratically inside the car, and at times appeared to be talking on a cellphone while inching along the northbound Harbor Freeway at speeds under 10 mph.
At one point, the pursuit passed a rubbish fire that was burning near the freeway at West 81st Street and South Grand Avenue in South Los Angeles, according to the Los Angeles Fire Department.
Multiple police cruisers were blocking traffic from passing the pursuit as they followed the driver, who would slow to a near-stop, then accelerate again.
Just after 9 p.m., the driver exited the 110 and entered onto the northbound Hollywood (101) Freeway near downtown, where the chase continued.
The driver traveled north toward the San Fernando Valley before exiting the freeway, making a U-turn and getting back on the northbound Hollywood Freeway.