COUNTYWIDE : 3 Held After Chase, Gunfire at Police

Three people suspected of car burglary were caught early Tuesday after they exchanged gunfire with police and led them on a chase that stretched nearly 100 miles from Fullerton into Ventura County, police said.

Claudia Yvonne Picasso, 19, of Alta Loma, Robert Salvador Sanchez, 18, of Pomona, and a 16-year-old Rosemead boy were arrested on Pacific Coast Highway in Ventura County after police placed spikes on the road that punctured their tires. The boy was not identified because of his age.

The three suspects are expected to be charged with attempted murder, burglary, evading arrest and attempted auto theft, police said. Picasso and Sanchez were held in Fullerton City Jail on $250,000 bail each. The 16-year-old was turned over to juvenile authorities.

Police said the 90-minute pursuit began at 1:30 a.m. when Fullerton officers David Yettaw and Rockne Crisp were on an undercover patrol in the 2000 block of Oxford Avenue, the site of a rash of car burglaries and auto thefts.

The two officers spotted two suspects from a vehicle in a carport at an apartment complex, said Fullerton Police Sgt. Glenn Deveney. The pair jumped into a waiting car and sped off, he said.

The officers, in an unmarked car, followed them east on Yorba Linda Boulevard to the northbound on-ramp of the Orange Freeway.

One occupant of the fleeing car leaned out the passenger window and fired several shots at the officers with a 9-millimeter pistol, Deveney said. Four rounds hit the police car.

The officers returned fire, striking the fleeing vehicle once on a door, Deveney said. No one was wounded in the exchange.

“Their intent definitely was not to scare them off,” Deveney said. “They were shooting at the officers.”

After the shots, the car was pulled over and a male occupant, believed to be the gunman, got out, police said. He ran away and remains at large, Deveney said.

In the meantime, other patrol cars joined in the chase as the vehicle sped north on the Orange Freeway. The suspects led police to the Lambert Street on-ramp, on side streets in Brea, La Habra and Whittier, and onto the northbound Santa Ana Freeway.

The chase went on, at times at speeds of 100 m.p.h., on freeways and surface streets in Pasadena and Glendale, around Los Angeles three times, and onto Pacific Coast Highway to Ventura County. At least half a dozen agencies joined in, along with several helicopters.

Police caught up with the three on Pacific Coast Highway at the Oxnard city limits. Ventura County sheriff’s deputies and the California Highway Patrol had set up spike strips that punctured three tires on the 1991 Nissan.