Murder Suspect Leads Police in High-Speed Chase

A suspected murderer fleeing police in a high-speed car chase crashed into another auto and a fire hydrant Monday, leaping from his burning car wreathed in flames which he doused under the towering spray from the broken hydrant, witnesses said.

He then ran into the parking lot of a nearby law school, where police captured him shortly afterward, with most of his clothes and hair burned off, they said.

The driver of the other car, whose name was withheld, was taken to Encino Hospital, where he was in serious condition with a dislocated shoulder, authorities said.

The suspected killer, identified as Kenneth Louis Brown, 29, of Van Nuys, was in police custody at Northridge Hospital Medical Center, where he was in critical condition with second- and third-degree burns over most of his body, authorities said.

Police had been searching for Brown, an ex-convict, since early Saturday when they say he killed one man and wounded another in Winnetka in a quarrel over a vehicle blocking his exit from the garage of an apartment house, police said.

Henry Antonio Romero, 22, of Northridge and Armando Reyes, 22, of Sylmar, were shot with a small-caliber pistol. Romero was killed and Reyes was wounded.

Brown was believed to live near Strathern Street and Louise Avenue in Van Nuys, police said. Officers patrolling the area spotted him in a late-model Mercedes-Benz on Monday afternoon and gave chase down Balboa Boulevard.

Brown ran red lights at Burbank Boulevard and the Ventura Freeway, where he collided with the other auto, police said. Brown’s car caromed into the fire hydrant, bounced into a tree and burst into flames just outside the University of LaVerne College of Law in the 5400 block of Balboa Boulevard.

Brown stepped into the water from the spouting hydrant to extinguish the flames, then, with most of his clothes burned off, fled into the school’s parking lot where police apprehended him.

Times staff writer Julie Tamaki contributed to this story.