Two suspected vandals were arrested after striking a Los Angeles County Sheriff's car, which led to a shooting and a pursuit early Monday on Southern California freeways.
The driver crashed on the 710 Freeway in South Gate, authorities said.
It started at 2:08 a.m. when deputies conducted a vandalism investigation in the 1400 block of South Sydney Avenue in East Los Angeles, Deputy Tracy Koerner of the Sheriff's Information Bureau said. When deputies tried to contact the taggers, they got into a car and struck a deputy, the sheriff's department said.
"The deputies' marked patrol car faced the suspect vehicle," a sheriff's department statement said. "The suspects, who drove towards the deputies, then struck the deputies' driver side door, as the deputies exited the patrol car. The door struck a deputy and pinned him in the doorframe, at which time a deputy-involved shooting occurred."
Deputies opened fired at the car, Koerner said. The deputy suffered non life-threatening injuries and was hospitalized for treatment.
No one was struck by gunfire.
The driver led deputies along the southbound 5 Freeway around Paramount Boulevard where they appeared to throw a firearm out a window, California Highway Patrol Officer Patrick Kimball said.
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The driver crashed just north of Imperial Highway in South Gate and the car's occupants were arrested, Kimball said.
The CHP issued SigAlerts about 2:30 a.m. for the Nos. 1 and 2 lanes of the Long Beach Freeway just north of Imperial Highway for the crash investigation and for the southbound Santa Ana Freeway around Paramount Boulevard so deputies could search for the firearm. On ramps at Slauson Avenue and Paramount and Lakewood boulevards were also shut down. The Santa Ana Freeway was reopened at 5:42 a.m. but the Long Beach Freeway SigAlert remained.
The ages and genders of the suspects were not available.
