Living in SoCal your pals at MotorBiscuit relax after a long day of cranking out posts to catch up on the latest LA car chase. They’re almost a nightly occurrence, and so one tends to blur into the next. But not last night. We were witness to a whopping six hours-long police chase through the San Gabriel Valley. Many now say it is the longest police chase ever. You can watch it below:

First off no one was hurt. That’s probably because this was a slo-mo chase. Though the suspect raced through streets and intersections once he was on the 110 Freeway he slowed to a cat-and-mouse crawl. Then stopping. Then crawling along some more. It was almost tedious.

Blazing through the LA area he chose to slow it way down on the freeway

Viewed from the NBC4 news copter you could see the driver was agitated. Hitting speeds of over 90 mph in his silver Chevrolet Malibu he was very animated. Blazing through the LA area once on the freeway he chose to slow it way down. That may have been why his gas held out for the six-hour-long ordeal. 

The 110 freeway cuts through the San Gabriel Valley portion of the LA basin. Hitting speeds between 0 and 30 mph he crawled along. Sometimes he’d stop, which officers would respond to by also stopping and opening their car doors for protection as they jumped out guns drawn. Then, the suspect would continue at his slow pace. It was like he was taunting the police. 

But the police hung in there. They determined the driver had a long rap sheet and figured he was armed, so they chose to take it easy so as not to antagonize the suspect. Starting around 7 PM, towards 11 PM this had progressed slowly, while cars stacked up behind the slow pursuit for miles and miles. Let’s just say it was a huge mess. 

At one point the NBC4 news chopper had to go back for more fuel

At one point the NBC4 news chopper had to go back to home base for more fuel. Highway Patrol vehicles cycled into and then out of the chase as they too needed more fuel. The suspect’s Malibu must have been a hybrid. 

Spike strips are the kryptonite of chased vehicles. These strips get thrown across a road or highway at the perfect time for the suspect vehicle to run over, causing some or all of the tires to go flat. This usually slows down but rarely stops these types of chases.  That’s what happened in the case of this chase as well.

Suspects will usually ride on rims until they can’t anymore. That’s what happened when the Malibu’s aluminum rims started to break up. Whether from the heat, load, or beating of driving for miles, once they broke up the suspect could not go any farther. 

Felony evading is the least of this suspect’s worries

Felony evading is the least of this suspect’s worries. He had outstanding warrants for burglary, which somewhat explains why he was fleeing from the police in the first place. Ultimately no weapons were found, though he may have pitched them out the window at some point. 

You may ask, “why not use the PIT maneuver?” If a suspect is determined to be armed it poses safety problems for the police once they spin the car around. At that point, the suspect is facing them with a loaded gun. Yeah, the police warrant our sincere appreciation.