9:31am | A pant-less Long Beach man led Orange County police on a high speed chase beginning in Westminster and ending in Seal Beach before being bitten by a police dog, tazered and taken into custody, authorities said.
A 39-year-old Long Beach man was driving erratically early Thursday morning when a citizen called police to alert them that a crazed driver was following him, according to the Orange County Register.
When officers caught up with the man just after 3 a.m., he refused to stop, and a chase ensued, Westminster police Sgt. Richard Mize reportedly said.
The man reportedly reached speeds of up to 80 miles per hour as he led .police through Huntington Beach, eventually stopping at the intersection of Westminster and Seal Beach boulevards.
The entire intersection was blocked off while, for nearly 20 minutes, police from Seal Beach, Los Alamitos, Cypress and Westminster waited for the man to exit his vehicle, Mize reportedly said, adding that the car’s windows were so filthy that police could not see inside.
While they were waiting, the officers received information from the Long Beach Police Department that the man had earlier evaded Long Beach police officers, who witnessed him doing narcotics in the front seat of his vehicle, Mize reportedly said.
“We made numerous requests and announcements for him to get out of the car, but he refused,” Mize told the Register. “He was challenging us to come in the car to get him.”
Officers reportedly shot a beanbag round through the driver’s side window as the man attempted to start his car and flee.
“He was yelling at us, and he didn’t seem afraid of the dog at all. We told him numerous times that if the K-9 was deployed, he would be bitten by the dog,” Mize told the Belmont Shore-Naples Patch. “We didn’t know if he had a gun in the front seat.”
The officers unleashed the German shepherd through the driver’s side window, at which time the man used a metal object to beat the dog over the head, Officers had to subdue him with a stun gun, at which time he was arrested, Mize reportedly said, adding that the dog was not injured.
The man, who was reportedly naked from the waist down, was taken to an Orange County hospital to be treated for dog bites before being booked into Orange County jail.
He reportedly was reportedly booked on suspicion of felony evading arrest, possession of narcotics, driving under the influence of narcotics, assaulting a police K-9 and resisting arrest.