What to Know
- The chase lasted 30 minutes
- It ended with a crash in Costa Mesa
- The suspect was identified as Outten Lorenzo Maurice Williams
A pregnant woman remains hospitalized today after her car was sideswiped by a man police said stole an Orange County Transit Authority shuttle bus in Irvine and led officers on an approximately 30-minute chase that ended with a crash into a freeway guardrail in Costa Mesa.
The bus hit Valerie Barrow's Prius on the Costa Mesa (55) Freeway. Barrow is 18 weeks pregnant. Her husband, Josh Barrow, told the station that the fetus is OK and his wife is recovering at a hospital.
The suspect was identified as Outten Lorenzo Maurice Williams, 20, according to Kim Mohr of the Irvine Police Department. The bus, which was empty, was taken about 6:20 p.m. Thursday in the area of Barranca Parkway and Harvard Avenue, according to Irvine police.
The California Highway Patrol reported the 20-passenger bus was taken on Culver Drive west of the Santa Ana (5) Freeway. Irvine police gave chase eastbound on Culver.
The chase continued in the southbound lanes of the freeway to southbound Route 133 when the CHP was asked to join the pursuit, which it did near Laguna Canyon and State Route 73. The pursuit continued north on the 73 to the Costa Mesa (55) Freeway, where the bus collided with the Prius and then slammed into a guardrail as the driver tried to exit at Victoria Avenue at 6:51 p.m., the CHP reported.
The suspect tried to run, but was quickly arrested, the CHP said. A motorcycle officer spotted the bus on the Santa Ana (5) Freeway and tried to pull it over, but the suspect didn't yield and allegedly tried and failed to run down the officer, according to Mohr. The officer was not injured, Mohr said.
