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Handcuffed Prisoner Rode in Squad Car During Compton Pursuit and Gunfight

A handcuffed prisoner was in the back seat of a Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department patrol car that was involved in a pursuit and gunfight with the occupants of an armored Cadillac SUV registered to rapper YG, law enforcement sources told NBCLA.

The prisoner had been arrested in an unrelated matter in Compton when the chase began July 3, and was inside the black-and-white as rifle bullets fired by someone in the SUV hit the car and the deputies fired back through the front windshield with their handguns, the sources said.

A Sheriff's Department spokesman said he could not confirm the information Friday.

The chase began around 11:15 p.m. in Compton when the deputies tried to stop the Cadillac Escalade, which had been modified with armor plates and bullet resistant glass.

The passenger in the Escalade was armed with an AK-47-style rifle and began firing at the patrol car. During the first exchange of gunfire near Spruce Street and Aranbe Avenue a 65-year-old man was struck by a bullet and killed.

Ricky Cornell Starks was caught in the crossfire, LA County Sheriff's Lt. Derrick Alfred said last week.

The chase reached speeds of nearly 100 mph on the Century (105) Freeway, when it was reported the passenger fired at a Sheriff's helicopter.

The SUV driver then exited the 405 Freeway at Manchester, and stopped on Queen Street near Ash Street. One of the men in the SUV was arrested. The second man fled with the rifle and was never found. One of the pursuing deputies was wounded during the shootout, when a rifle bullet struck the top of his pistol and hit his arm, the sources said.

That deputy was treated at a hospital and released, authorities said.

The department has not released the name of the man arrested at the end of the chase, and has not identified the handcuffed prisoner.

The SUV is registered to Keenon Jackson, better known as YG, officials said last week.

"The 2018 black Cadillac Escalade is reportedly a company car," the Sheriff's Department said in a news release.

On July 5, the rapper posted on Twitter, "I was nowhere near the scene of this incident, I was in Hollywood recording in the studio all day. I was there until after midnight on the 4th of July and didn't learn of these events until after they happened!"

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