CAR CHASE ENDS IN CHATSWORTH; ROBBERY SUSPECT CAPTURED AFTER HIGH-SPEED PURSUIT.Byline: Terri Hardy Daily News Staff Writer An armed robbery suspect Noun 1. robbery suspect - someone suspected of committing robbery suspect - someone who is under suspicion was arrested Friday after leading deputies on a harrowing high-speed chase from Oxnard to Chatsworth - only three days after a police pursuit killed a woman in Granada Hills. At speeds exceeding 90 mph, the suspect sideswiped several cars along the Ventura Freeway The Ventura Freeway is a freeway in southern California running from Ventura to Pasadena. It is the principal east-west route through Ventura County and in the southern San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles County. and raced up Winnetka Avenue through heavy morning traffic. It was one of more than 356 police pursuits in Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. so far this year, including at least 105 that have ended with injuries, police said. Friday's chase and arrest ended with no reported injuries, California Highway Patrol highway patrol n. A state law enforcement organization whose police officers patrol the public highways. officers said. The suspect abandoned the car near Winnetka Avenue and Plummer Street and tried to escape through back yards, only to be captured while residents watched. ``It was quite unnerving un·nerve tr.v. un·nerved, un·nerv·ing, un·nerves 1. To deprive of fortitude, strength, or firmness of purpose. 2. To make nervous or upset. - police did draw their guns,'' said Patricia Smith Patricia Smith (1955) is a poet, spoken word performer, playwright, author, writing teacher, and former journalist. She was born in Chicago and lives in Westchester County, New York. , a Chatsworth resident who witnessed the tense search from her house. ``I looked in my back yard and locked my doors. I didn't go outside.'' The man was arrested on suspicion of robbery and was being held in the Ventura County Sheriff's Department The Ventura County Sheriff's Department (VCSD) provides law enforcement for the unincorporated areas of Ventura County, California, USA, as well as several cities within the county. The cities that VCSD serves are Camarillo, Fillmore, Moorpark, Ojai, and Thousand Oaks. jail. Oxnard police believe the man may have given a phony name, and they were waiting for positive identification through state fingerprint records, police said. A second suspect from the same supermarket robbery was not part of the car chase and remained at large Friday in Oxnard, police said. The early morning drama began in Oxnard when two men robbed a Food 4 Less supermarket. ``One suspect held customers and employees in the front, the other forced one employee to open a vault,'' said Oxnard police Sgt. Bill Maarschalk. The men indicated that they had guns, but witnesses did not see them, Maarschalk said. After grabbing an undetermined amount of money, witnesses saw them leave the scene in a vehicle, Maarschalk said. About 7 a.m., Ventura County deputies on patrol spotted a car that matched the description of the getaway vehicle - but with only one man in the car, said sheriff's Capt. Keith Parks. The driver refused to stop, and deputies saw the man toss a handgun out the window. As a sheriff's helicopter tracked the driver's progress from the air, deputies followed the car down the Ventura Freeway, Parks said. The suspect sideswiped four or five cars as he made his way into the San Fernando Valley San Fernando Valley Valley, southern California, U.S. Northwest of central Los Angeles, the valley is bounded by the San Gabriel, Santa Susana, and Santa Monica mountains and the Simi Hills. , but there were no major collisions, said Sgt. Randy Klucker of the West Valley CHP CHP Chapter CHP Combined Heat and Power CHP California Highway Patrol CHP Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi (Turkish: Republican People's Party) CHP Chemical Hygiene Plan (OSHA) CHP Community Health Plan office. ``There was a lot of traffic,'' Klucker said. The driver exited at Winnetka Avenue, and raced north on the busy thoroughfare. ``He was traveling at high speeds during traffic breaks, but was forced to slow down as traffic bunched,'' Parks said. When the driver spotted patrol cars waiting for him at the intersection of Winnetka Avenue and Plummer Street, the man pulled into a parking lot and ditched the car, Parks said. Within minutes, the LAPD's Devonshire division began to receive calls from frightened residents. ``He was jumping walls and running through yards,'' Parks said. Smith, who lives in the 20000 block of the normally serene Halsted Street, ``heard helicopters and knew there was something wrong.'' Police instructed curious residents to stay inside their homes, and began to search the street. Smith watched as one of her neighbors raced outside calling to police that he had spotted the suspect. ``The police ran over there, and brought the man back to the car - he was in handcuffs hand·cuff n. A restraining device consisting of a pair of strong, connected hoops that can be tightened and locked about the wrists and used on one or both arms of a prisoner in custody; a manacle. Often used in the plural. tr.v. ,'' Smith said. CAPTION(S): Photo, Map Photo: Police and sheriff's deputies arrest a robbery suspect Friday in Chatsworth after a high-speed chase that began in Oxnard. Gene Blevins/Special to the Daily News Map; CHASE IN VALLEY |
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