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Carjacking suspects taken into custody following search of Reseda neighborhood

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Police have detained two men who are accused of carjacking a pickup truck in Oxnard and leading police on a pursuit through the San Fernando Valley early Monday morning, authorities said.

Around 2:45 a.m., two men — one armed with a knife and one with an assault rifle — approached the driver of a white Ford F-150 outside a gas station at Commercial Avenue and South Oxnard Boulevard and demanded his keys, said Oxnard Police Sgt. Brandon Ordelheide.

Los Angeles police officers spotted the car at 4:53 a.m. at Van Nuys Boulevard and Moorpark Street in Sherman Oaks, said LAPD Officer Norma Eisenman, a spokeswoman.

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The chase began there, and after about a half-hour of erratic driving and triple-digit speeds, ended in a residential, tree-lined Reseda neighborhood. The two suspects jumped out of the car and ran into the neighborhood, according to ABC 7 news video.

Police detained one man soon after he jumped out of the car, then established a perimeter around the neighborhood to look for the second, said LAPD Lt. Chris Ramirez, a spokesman.

Police closed a number of streets near a mobile home park as they searched for the suspects. The search was conducted between Victory Boulevard, Wilbur Avenue, Kittridge Street and Vanalden Avenue, Eisenman said.

A second man was detained around 10:50 a.m. and the area was no longer on lockdown as of 11:10 a.m., Ramirez said.

Sherman Oaks Center for Enriched Studies, a school serving about 2,000 students grades 4-12, is blocks from the neighborhood. No schools were affected by the incident and the Sherman Oaks school was open Monday, L.A. Unified spokeswoman Barbara Jones said.

Reach Sonali Kohli at Sonali.Kohli@latimes.com or on Twitter @Sonali_Kohli.

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UPDATES:

11:35 a.m.: This story was updated with information about a second person being taken into custody.

This story was originally published at 7 a.m.

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