Fasten your seat belts for a wild, 11-minute California Highway Patrol high-speed car chase video, which ends with the suspect absconding into the bay, but lo, this tactic proves unsuccessful.
A high-speed chase early Thursday morning was captured on video by a California Highway Patrol helicopter and spanned two East Bay counties, started with a bang in Martinez, but ended all wet in Emeryville under a dock at the local Chevy's Fresh Mex. KPIX brings us the details of this 120-mile-an-hour car chase, but more intriguingly, the California Highway Patrol Golden Gate Division Air Operations unit brings us the thrilling video of the incident below.
Most of the video is in “night goggles” mode, so much of it is black with Matrix-like green bits of alphanumeric code in the screen corners. But golly, you sure can see how these vehicles are moving a heck of a lot faster than the other vehicles, starting on Highway 4 and moving to I-80. Per the CHP’s Facebook post above, Highway Patrol cruisers are pursuing what they describe as a “felony vehicle,” and a copter they call “H-30 remained overhead allowing officers from CHP - Contra Costa to follow at a safe distance.”
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The vehicle appears to give up the goose at about the 2:30 mark, when its driver pulls over. But really, they’re just relieving themselves of a likely incriminating backpack and an “an AR-15 rifle,” according to KPIX. The vehicle then resumes its breakneck-speed escape attempt along I-80.
But at about the 3:00 mark, another gang of officers releases some “spike strips” in the getaway car's path. “It was a successful spike,” you can hear an officer say in the video. “Car is losing rubber on the tires.”
The seriously slowed car still tries its damnedest, but becomes more undrivable, and the two suspects abandon the vehicle near the Emeryville Chevy’s. At that point we are in “foot pursuit.” One suspect is quickly apprehended in the office parking lot next to the Chevy’s, the other attempts to escape swimming in the bay.
But this D.B. Cooper tactic does not work, as the suspect does not so much swim away as they do just hide under the dock, surrounded by officers. That’s not going to do it. The second suspect is apprehended with little resistance.
Given this incident involved an AR-15 and suspects driving 120 miles an hour, it is a relief that no one was hurt. The CHP has not released any information on who the suspects were or why the pursuit was taking place, but they did give us a very satisfying car chase video to enjoy.
Image: Chevy’s Emeryville via Yelp
