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Suspect leads police on wild pursuit with two stolen vehicles, dozens of crashes

LOS ANGELES — A suspect is in custody after a pursuit through southern California —which at times, appeared to be from an action movie.

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Investigators told KCBS that the crime spree began when police tried to stop the driver of a black sedan for a traffic violation near Knott’s Berry Farm.

Officers with the Fullerton Police Department caught up to the suspect at an Anaheim apartment complex, where the suspect got out of the sedan and allegedly stole a van, KTLA reported.

Video from KABC’s helicopter showed that as the suspect tried to steal the van, police had blocked the vehicle in. Rather than surrender, the suspect used the van to repeatedly ram the police cruiser until it had moved enough to allow him to drive away.

Watch the pursuit courtesy of KABC

“My refrigerated van was so heavy that he was able to push the police car out of his way by backing up and ramming it and it squeezed out,” Josh Reynolds, the owner of the stolen van, told KCBS.

Once the van reached Whittier, it lost one of its rear tires, KABC reported. Video from the station’s helicopter shows sparks flying from the rear driver’s side wheel.

The suspect eventually ran from the van into a neighborhood, where he ran down several blocks before running into a family’s home.

“When I saw that he was going in the house, my first reaction was, ‘My mother’s in the house, I’ve got to defend ourselves,’” Andres Benitez told KNBC. “I grabbed the first kitchen knife I saw and was like, ‘Bro, you’ve got to get out of the house, or I’m going to have to stab you, right now.’”

The suspect took the family’s new truck, which had been parked outside.

“It makes me very upset because that was a big investment that I had just made with my brother — like a month ago, less than a month,” Benitez told KCBS. “Just to see that brand-new truck get stolen with all the equipment on there — it’s just heartbreaking.”

The suspect took the truck, driving the wrong way down narrow two-lane roads, running red lights and sideswiping and crashing into a number of cars, KNBC reported.

After losing a front tire on the stolen truck, the suspect crashed at a gas station after a deputy’s vehicle hit the truck from behind. The truck became inoperable and caught fire, KABC reported. Deputies used fire extinguishers to put out the flames, while the driver remained barricaded inside.

The suspect was removed from the pickup truck and arrested, KTLA reported. He was identified as Johnny Anchondo.

Anchondo was charged with violating his parole, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department told the Los Angeles Times.

Benitez started a GoFundMe page to raise money to replace the stolen truck and the tools that were inside it.

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