Laguna Niguel : 112-Mile Chase Ends as Driver Runs Out of Gas

A seemingly routine call about a domestic disturbance in San Fernando led police on a 112-mile, high-speed chase that ended in Laguna Niguel on Saturday when a 27-year-old man was arrested after running out of gas, police said.

Roberto Garcia Diaz was being held on $30,000 bail in San Fernando jail Saturday afternoon after a wild ride with his four children in the van, according to San Fernando Police Sgt. Ernie Halcon.

Halcon said Diaz was being held on suspicion of felony child endangering, reckless driving, evading arrest and wife beating.

“The entire pursuit was between 90 and 110 miles per hour,” Halcon said. “I think it’s just a matter of luck that we don’t have some dead children here.”

Halcon said Diaz’s wife had called police to her home on Lazard Street at about 9:30 a.m., saying her husband had assaulted her.

Diaz, who had driven off in his van with the four children by the time police arrived, returned to the home but then raced away when he saw police were there, Halcon said.

Diaz first raced down the 210 Freeway to Pasadena with police in pursuit, but then doubled back to the west on the 210, eventually taking the Glendale Freeway south and then heading south on Interstate 5 into Orange County, Halcon said.

With San Fernando police, CHP units from Orange County and a Pasadena police helicopter in pursuit, Diaz eventually turned off the I-5 Freeway at La Paz Road near Laguna Niguel and ran out of gas a few miles later at Crown Valley Parkway, Halcon said.

Diaz bailed out of his van, jumped a fence and ran into a yard, where police arrested him without resistance at about 10:55 a.m., Halcon said. He said the children, who range in age from about 1 to 5 years of age, were shaken but unhurt.

Halcon, who did not give Diaz’s wife’s name, said the 28-year-old woman told officers that Diaz struck her when she complained “about the fact that he’d been drinking too much lately.”