Suspect who drove stolen car at officer is hospitalized after crash hours later, LAPD says

A man accused by police of stealing a car and driving it at an officer in Historic South-Central later crashed the vehicle and was taken to the hospital in critical condition, Los Angeles police said Monday.

The man, whose name has not been released, was accused by his mother of stealing her car Sunday, according to LAPD spokesman Officer Mike Lopez. The woman called police later that evening, around 7:10 p.m., and told them she saw the car in a parking lot on the 2300 block of Wall Street, police said.

Officers approached the red four-door sedan, which they believed to be vacant — but the suspect was inside, according to Lopez.

The man drove toward an officer who jumped out of the way, police said.

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More than four hours later, around 11:30 p.m., the driver was involved in a three-car crash at East Washington Boulevard and South Central Avenue. The drivers of the two other cars suffered minor injuries, but the suspect was trapped in the car and had to be extricated by firefighters, then was taken to a hospital in critical condition, officials said.

Video from the scene shows the suspect’s vehicle mounted the sidewalk and came to rest outside fast-food restaurant Tacos Galivan. The hood of the car was crumpled against a pole as firefighters worked to get him out.

Though the Los Angeles Fire Department said in a release that the crash was “reported to be at the end of a police pursuit,” police denied that, saying the crash was entirely separate from the stolen vehicle investigation earlier in the night.

“It was not a pursuit. They were wrong,” Lopez said.

Police arrested the driver on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon for allegedly driving the car at an officer. He was also suspected of a separate, unrelated robbery, Lopez said.