A man and a woman are in custody after an incredibly dangerous high-speed pursuit with an infant inside the car unfolded Wednesday in Southern California.
It’s unclear what time the pursuit was initiated by officers with the Hawthorne Police Department, but the suspects were reportedly wanted for armed robbery.
Hawthorne PD backed out of the pursuit in the area of Florence Avenue, though it was later picked up by deputies with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.
The chase became even more complicated when the passenger in the original suspect vehicle jumped into a different car, a silver sedan, with another driver who continued the pursuit in the new vehicle.
It was later learned that the man had called his girlfriend to come pick him up. He then got behind the wheel of the car and continued the pursuit and at some point, began livestreaming the chase on his Instagram account.
The driver then made his way into downtown Los Angeles where Sky5 captured him hitting speeds of 80 miles per hour on surface streets, coming dangerously close to hitting a Metro bus, running red lights and stop signs, as well as weaving through heavy traffic and driving on the wrong side of the road.
Deputies pulled back due to the suspect’s reckless driving, though authorities were tracking the vehicle from the sky.
In Culver City, the suspect turned down a dead-end street and was boxed in by several deputies, one of which deployed a spike strip behind the vehicle to prevent the suspect from attempting to flee.
At first, it appeared that the driver and passenger were refusing to exit the vehicle while surrounded by law enforcement. The driver was then seen speaking to police from the window and eventually threw his keys out of the car.
When he opened his door, an infant could be seen in his lap. He later passed the child to the backseat, where a woman opened the door and exited the vehicle with the baby in her arms. She was escorted behind law enforcement lines, where a deputy was seen taking custody of the child.
Both the male driver and the female passenger were handcuffed and placed into the back of patrol vehicles.