Four Males Apprehended in Malibu County Line Chase Crash

• Suspects Fired at Pursuing Deputies While Speeding on Pacific Coast Highway

BY ANNE SOBLE

Some County Line residents say they have had enough excitement for a while. First there was last week’s potentially threatening wildfire, then they were awakened just before 1 a.m. Sunday by a reverse 911 call from the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department telling them to remain inside their homes and not let in any outsiders.
Concerned residents who contacted the VCSD for more information weren’t told that the reason for the warning was a classic car chase, complete with gunfire from the fleeing vehicle aimed at Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies, that had come to a crashing halt in their neighborhood.
The four males in the luxury car that was allegedly carjacked from the Santa Paula area, fled the scene on foot after careening into three vehicles parked along the beach side of Pacific Coast Highway in the 46210 block.
A .30 caliber rifle was recovered from the suspects’ vehicle.
PCH was shut down from Mulholland Highway to Deer Creek Road, as a large law enforcement contingent hunted and ultimately apprehended the quartet. Two of them were reportedly caught at 2:50 a.m. and the other two at 5:15 a.m.
Three men, ages 19, 20 and 22, and a male juvenile, age 16, were booked and could face charges of carjacking and attempted murder of a police officer.
The details are still sketchy, but area residents indicated that some of the suspects were hiding in nearby brush. Two were said to have been found inside trash receptacles, including one that the owner said he had just filled with used cat litter.
Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Lt. Scott Chew reported that the incident began when two Lost Hills deputies observed a suspicious occupied vehicle at the closed Trancas Chevron station just after midnight Sunday. A license plate check indicated the car had been stolen earlier this month.
Spotting the deputies, the suspects drove west, reaching speeds unofficially estimated at over 100 mph before the driver lost control of the car near Yerba Buena Road.
Chew said when the men fled, Lost Hills deputies established a containment area with officers from the California Highway Patrol, Ventura County Sheriff’s Department (including an aero unit and a K-9 unit), Oxnard Police Department (with a second K-9 unit), Santa Paula Police Department, as well as Los Angeles County deputies from the Marina Del Rey Boat Detail, Lennox Station and Century Station.
PCH remained closed an additional two hours until 8 a.m. on Sunday so investigators could take the measurements and photographs required because the chase ended in a crash.