Man arrested after multiple Westside carjackings and crashes

A man was arrested Monday morning after a series of carjackings and crashes beginning in Pacific Palisades and ending in Malibu, authorities said.

The crime spree began around 7:45 a.m. when the man, an adult male in his mid-40s, went into a woman’s apartment on the 100 block of Marquez Place, held her at knife-point for about 30 minutes and demanded she drive him to somewhere in the San Fernando Valley, Los Angeles police said.

They got into her car, and in an attempt to escape, the woman intentionally crashed her vehicle near Palisades High School, police said.

The man then fled, and demanded the car of a young adult female near the school who was sitting in her parked Toyota Corolla. Although he was not still armed with the knife, he made her get out of the car and took off, police said.

While driving, he collided with four parked cars on Livorno Drive. The car he was driving became inoperable, prompting him to abandon it, police said.

Police said he then went into a residence in the 16000 block of Sunset Boulevard, where he demanded the keys to a car from two women.

He drove that car from Sunset onto the northbound Pacific Coast Highway. The LAPD put out information about the incident to the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department’s Lost Hills division, which spotted the vehicle traveling at high speeds on the freeway.

The suspect collided with another vehicle at the intersection of Malibu Canyon Road, where sheriff’s deputies took him into custody around 8:30 a.m.

The suspect and two other people involved in the Malibu collision were transported to a hospital with non-life threatening injuries, police said.

The suspect, whose identity was not immediately released, was described as having multiple felonies and is “probably a career criminal,” said LAPD Lt. Randy Goddard.

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