Norwalk Man Arrested After High-Speed Chase
California Highway Patrol officers Monday arrested a Norwalk man on suspicion of trying to run down an Orange police officer in a shopping center parking lot.
Anthony Mendez Prieto, 38, was taken into custody after a high-speed car chase and foot pursuit on the San Diego Freeway near Seal Beach Boulevard.
Orange Police Lt. Larry Dawson said that while Officer Edward Contreras was on stakeout in an unmarked car in The City Shopping Center, he saw a man leaving a department store with a coat over his arm and looking suspicious.
When Contreras confronted him, Dawson said, the man jumped into his car. Contreras, who was in uniform, stood in front of the car to block it, but the suspect drove toward him, Dawson said.
Contreras broadcast a bulletin, and shortly afterward, CHP Officer Al Villar took up the chase.
Near the Seal Beach Boulevard exit of the San Diego Freeway, the fleeing driver spun out of control, crashed the car into the center divider and fled on foot. Villar and several other officers pursued and arrested Prieto.
He was booked into Orange County Jail on suspicion of felony assault on an officer and burglary.
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