The Region : Own Car Nails Suspect

A suspected cocaine dealer was run over by his own car while apparently trying to escape police on the Ventura Freeway. Officers said Xavier Paulino Gilbert was being followed by a patrol car that had spotted him driving a car with an expired license on surface streets near the freeway. He tossed out a briefcase and gunned the car up the Tampa Avenue on-ramp . . . and jumped out on the passenger side, police said. A police spokesman said the rear wheels of the driverless car rolled over Gilbert, who was also nicked by two other vehicles before he could get up and run off the freeway. Police recovered the briefcase, which contained about a pound of rock cocaine, and booked Gilbert, 26, of Van Nuys, into the jail ward at County-USC Medical Center after treatment for a dislocated shoulder and internal injuries.