A new video captures the greatest hits of an epic, two-county car chase where a suspect collides with police cars, jumps a 20-foot ridge and carjacks his way out of it, and then attempts to gouge the eyeballs out of the K-9 dog that eventually nabs him.
Back in June, the Bay Area News Group reported the story of a East Bay carjacking police chase that did not seem terribly out of the ordinary, and no one really remembered it. But the Bay Area News Group stuck on the story, searching down all the body-cam and helicopter footage of the incident and stitching them together in narrative order, for the most absolutely insane real-life police car chase that plays out like a scene from a Blues Brothers movie.
The 4:20-minute (heh) length video above captures the bizarre and hair-raising highlights of a pursuit that lasts two days, covers two counties, and involves the commandeering of multiple stolen vehicles. The pastiche of police footage comes from the Concord Police, the Contra Costa Sheriff's Office, the Contra Costa District Attorney's Office, the Lafayette Police, and the Pittsburg Police. Our story begins the night of June 13, when 28-year-old Victor Topete of Pittsburg, already out on bail from a manslaughter charge, has a run-in with two Pittsburg police wherein he successfully scuffles with both and speeds away.
We got footage of the craziest police chase I've ever covered in my career. This is almost straight outta GTA. He collided head-on with a cop car, jumped off a 20-foot ledge, ran across the freeway, got hit by a car, carjacked a motorist... https://t.co/34zNu3eQrA @DylanBouscher
— Nate Gartrell (@NateGartrell) December 29, 2020
Shit gets nuts the following day, when Lafayette police are pursuing him in his father’s (allegedly stolen) Ford F250 white truck. The truck is barreling 60 miles an hour the wrong way across CA-24 in Lafayette, and then crashes head-on into a police car. Undeterred, Topete (again, allegedly, but it’s all on video) hops out of the truck, leaps down a 20-foot retaining wall, and lands on the pavement of CA-24.
That sounds painful enough, but he is then hit by an oncoming truck. He nonetheless keeps going Energizer Bunny-style, attempting several carjackings of oncoming cars until he finally gets one. But he’s hanging halfway out of the moving car and holding on for dear life for a few hundred yards until he manages to shoo the rightful motorist out. The getaway appears successful, until he gets to Keller Avenue in Oakland and collides with another vehicle, again escaping on foot across a crowded highway. A K-9 dog manages to stop him, though allegedly he tries to gouge the dog’s eyes out with his thumbs, before a large team of police finally subdues him.
Topete is charged with (deep breath) assault with a deadly weapon, resisting arrest, carjacking, attempted carjacking, evading arrest, reckless driving, probation violations, possession of stolen property, trying to harm a K-9, and felony hit-and-run. He’s scheduled to stand trial next year,
Related: Rental Car Leads Cops On Wild Chase, Smashes Everything [SFist]
Screenshot: Youtube