A brief high-speed pursuit of a man suspected of firing a handgun early Wednesday in the San Fernando Valley ended when he crashed into a fire hydrant and died.
The chase began after officers responded to a call about shots being fired at a Sun Valley apartment complex just after 2 a.m., Los Angeles police said.
"(It is) unknown if he fired it at the building up in the air or at someone," LAPD Sgt. Frank Preciado said.
During the one-minute pursuit, the rider on a powerful Kawasaki Ninja sportsbike reached speeds of up to 130 mph.
"As soon as he saw the lights and sirens — the supervisor had his emergency equipment on — he should have just stopped, pulled over," Preciado said. "But at that point he decided to go in excess of 100 miles an hour."
The motorcyclist lost control and crashed into a fire hydrant in the 1200 block of Truman Street in San Fernando. He died at the scene.
"He severed the hydrant from its base," Preciado said, adding that investigators will do ballistics testing to see if the reported shots fired came from a gun found near the motorcyclist's body.
Truman Street reopened at about 8:30 a.m. after the investigation.
