Dog Ends 3-City Chase : Crime: A snarling police dog finally corners, and bites, a bank robbery suspect who led police on a slam-bang chase through three cities.

A bank robbery suspect led police on a wild chase through three cities Thursday before abandoning his wrecked car and fleeing on foot, only to cornered by a snarling police dog.

During the ordeal, at least four cars were damaged, a curious 10-year-old girl was slightly injured by a door on a police car and a bystander was detained because he matched the description of the suspect.

The incident began shortly after 2 p.m. when a man walked into the Security Pacific Bank branch at 2516 E. Chapman Ave. and robbed a teller while simulating possession of a weapon, police said.

The robber fled in a white Chevrolet Camaro driven by a second man, police said.

A few minutes later, Fullerton Police Officer Steve Williams spotted the getaway car traveling west on the Riverside Freeway.

Williams, along with detectives from Anaheim, pulled the suspects over when they left the freeway at Brookhurst Street, police said.

The driver of the Camaro was ordered out of the car and arrested at gunpoint, but the passenger managed to slip behind the wheel and drive off, Fullerton Police Sgt. Ken Kepner said.

The suspect, who was later identified as Kenneth Lewis Crader, 27, of Buena Park, sped west on La Palma Avenue, police said. As the suspect’s car approached busy Beach Boulevard near Knott’s Berry Farm in Buena Park, it collided with another car. Two people were taken to UCI Medical Center in Orange with unspecified injuries.

The crash, however, did not stop Crader, who sped away, police said.

Several minutes later, a patrol car chasing Crader was struck broadside by another car at the intersection of Dale Street and Crescent Avenue in Anaheim, police said. The officer was unharmed, but his car was totaled, police said. The driver of the other vehicle was taken to a local hospital with minor injuries.

Meanwhile, near the corner of Polk and Grand avenues in Anaheim, Crader decided to ditch the badly damaged Camaro and flee on foot, police said. Crader hopped fences and ran through back yards as police cordoned off the neighborhood.

A Cypress police dog was brought in to help search for the suspect. Within a few minutes, the dog found Crader in a tool shed behind a house on the 3100 block of Tyler Avenue. Crader surrendered after the dog bit him on his right arm, witnesses said.

The convergence of police from four departments on the quiet neighborhood drew several dozen onlookers.

Ten-year-old Karina Barajas said she was riding her bicycle barefoot on the sidewalk on the north side of Tyler Avenue when a squad car pulled up and she went over to investigate the commotion. Just then, an officer opened the passenger door, smashing the youngster’s right foot and nearly causing her to topple off her bike.

“She came home and was crying, and we thought she had seen something terrible when we realized it was her foot,” said her 23-year-old sister, Barbara Montoya.

Pointing to Karina’s puffy, red foot, Montoya said, “The worst thing was, he (the officer) just told her she should be more careful next time.”

Rick Muller, a 35-year-old a mail clerk, said he was walking away from the uproar to his apartment on Grand Avenue when a plainclothes detective and a uniformed officer forced him to the ground.

Muller said the officers searched him, cuffed him and began questioning him, until they realized they had the wrong man.

“I was more surprised than scared,” Muller said about the 15-minute ordeal. “I told them who I was, but they didn’t believe me.”

Crader and his alleged accomplice, identified as Charles Robert Wharton, 28, of Huntington Beach, were booked in Fullerton City Jail on suspicion of bank robbery, police said. Additional charges of evading arrest are expected to be filed against Crader, police said.

The money taken during the robbery was found in the Camaro, police said.