Pursuit ends when truck crashes into duplex garage
A North Hermosa home sustained heavy damage early Tuesday morning after a police pursuit ended with the suspect’s car crashing into the home’s garage. Photo by Ron Felsing
A North Hermosa Beach home sustained major damage early Tuesday morning when a truck pursued by police officers crashed into its garage.
No one was hurt in the crash, but two suspects were arrested on suspicion of felony evading arrest and other charges, police said.
The pursuit began about 1:15 a.m. in Manhattan Beach when officers there attempted to pull over a car for a vehicle code violation near the intersection of Sepulveda Boulevard and Rosecrans Avenue, said Sgt. Tim Zins of the Manhattan Beach Police Department. The car, a white Chevy Silverado with lifted suspension of the type commonly used for off-roading, began to pull over, and then took off.
The truck headed south and MBPD officers followed, Zins said. At one point, the car entered downtown Hermosa, and Manhattan police pulled back out of concern for a concentration of pedestrians.
The pursuit lasted approximately 15 minutes before the truck crashed into the garage of a home in the 2600 block of Palm Drive about 1:30 a.m., Zins said. The home, a duplex with upstairs and downstairs units that share the garage, is near the Manhattan Mart liquor store and North End Bar and Grill in the Five Corners area of Hermosa. On Wednesday morning, the garage area was covered in plywood, but the rest of the home appeared structurally sound.
Hermosa resident Lou Brewer lives in the neighborhood, and was awakened by the noise of the crash.
“It was like an alarm clock for me,” Brewer said.
Police had already arrived by the time he went outside.
“They said, ‘Put your hands up! Who else is in there?’ I thought, This could end in gunfire, so I went back inside,” Brewer said.
Brewer went inside, then emerged a little while later to find one person on the ground in handcuffs. He estimates that there were seven or eight police cars on Palm Drive and the surrounding streets, and said a police helicopter was hovering overhead for about 20 minutes. Photos of the moments after the crash show units from other agencies on the scene, including the Inglewood Police Department.
Following the crash, police arrested two women: Arasely Medrano, a 42-year-old San Jacinto resident, and Anastasia Macher, a 24-year-old Murrieta resident, MBPD Chris Vargas said in an email.
Police initially believed that there was a third suspect, a man, involved in the pursuit as well, Zins said. Brewer said that, while standing outside, he heard one of the officers take a radio call offering a description of a man, and the officer immediately took off in a cruiser.
But officers later determined that there was no third suspect, and that the man they thought was involved was likely just a pedestrian who happened to be walking by at the time, Zins said.
In a search of the car following the arrest of the two women, police also found drugs and IDs of other people, Zins said. As a result, the women are also facing narcotics and identity theft charges.
According to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, Medrano is being held in lieu of $75,000 bail, while Macher is being held in lieu of $50,000 bail. The incident report from the crash lists Medrano as the driver and Macher as the passenger, said Sgt. Mick Gaglia of the Hermosa Beach Police Department.