A man who waved a gun from a car window during a pursuit crashed his car into a Chase bank Tuesday in Woodland Hills, triggering an overnight standoff with police.
Police began pursuing the man for reckless driving, at which point he pointed a gun at the police officer pursuing him, said Lt. Carl Taylor, the watch commander at the LAPD's Van Nuys Station.
The pursuit ended when the man slammed his black BMW into the Chase bank at Ventura Boulevard and De Soto Avenue. He was driving at such a high rate of speed that the vehicle fully pierced the building, Taylor said.
Officers and their SWAT colleagues took up positions outside the bank in the 20900 block of Ventura Boulevard as they awaited crisis negotiators. The man was armed and moving around inside the bank, Taylor said.
It was not immediately clear whether the driver was injured.
