Officer Kills Youth After Freeway Chase : Huntington Beach 18-Year-Old Is Shot After Ramming Patrol Car, Police Say

A Seal Beach police officer shot and killed a Huntington Beach teen-ager early Sunday after a high-speed chase that began on Pacific Coast Highway and ended 11 minutes later in a residential cul-de-sac in Cerritos, police said.

The officer opened fire on Robert Lane Reich, 18, just after Reich, cornered in the 11100 block of Bingham Street, rammed the back of his car into a Los Alamitos police car that had joined the chase minutes earlier, according to police and statements from witnesses.

The Seal Beach Police Department, which is conducting an internal investigation, declined to release the officer’s name. The shooting is also being investigated by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, in whose jurisdiction it occurred.

Few details were available as of Sunday evening. Police said that they did not know why Reich--who was apparently alone in the vehicle--would not stop for the patrol car, or why he rammed the second police car.

Reich’s father, Jerome Reich of Huntington Beach, would only say that his son’s death was “a tragedy.”

The chase began about 12:30 a.m. on Pacific Coast Highway near 12th Street in Seal Beach, where the officer saw Reich driving recklessly and attempted to stop him, according to Police Capt. Ken Garrett. But Reich continued on Pacific Coast Highway to Long Beach before pulling into a parking lot at Westminster Avenue, Garrett said.

Instead of stopping, however, Reich sped out of the parking lot, and drove east on Westminster Avenue, eventually getting on the 605 Freeway and driving north at 80 to 90 m.p.h., Garrett said. At Del Amo Boulevard, Reich left the freeway, followed by the Seal Beach patrol car and another from the Los Alamitos Police Department, which had joined the chase on the freeway. They followed Reich into a subdivision--with Reich’s car colliding with both police cars along the way--between the freeway and Studebaker Road, police said.

When Reich turned onto Bingham Street, he ran into a dead end. The Seal Beach officer got out of his car to approach the driver, Garrett said, but Reich threw his car into reverse and slammed into the oncoming Los Alamitos patrol car, slightly injuring the officer inside. The Seal Beach officer then fired several shots at Reich, who died at the scene, Garrett said.

Residents of the quiet cul-de-sac said that Reich was driving a white Toyota, and had smashed in the front end of the Los Alamitos police car when he backed into it.

“This dude came flying down the street with two cops behind him,” said Mike Ayala Jr., 17, who was watching television when he heard the sirens and squealing tires in front of his house. When he looked out the window, he saw Reich backing up his car “at 20, maybe 25 miles per hour” into a police car, he said. “Then I ran into the other room, and I heard the shots.”

Other residents said they heard between four and six shots.

“This is a nice, quiet neighborhood,” said Kevin Fielder, 25. “I guess that guy wasn’t from around here. He didn’t know there was no way out.”