Police Chase Causes 6 Accidents; Suspect Shot : Crime: Man in stolen motor home is pursued from Diamond Bar to Newport Beach. He is wounded after ramming officers’ vehicles.

Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies shot and wounded a man who allegedly stole a motor home in Diamond Bar and led officers on a high-speed chase that caused at least six accidents before it ended Monday at the tip of the Balboa Peninsula.

The unidentified man was hospitalized for gunshot wounds and dog-bite injuries sustained as Los Angeles sheriff’s deputies tried to arrest him about 6 a.m. in Newport Beach, Sgt. Robert Olmsted said.

At least six deputies opened fire into the driver’s-side window of the 1977 Southwind, Olmsted said. A stray bullet hit the second-floor balcony of a home at the end of a coastal road that dead-ends into a popular surfing spot.

The chase began when a burglary alarm sounded about 4:45 a.m. in a storage area for motor homes, Olmsted said. Arriving deputies saw a motor home being driven through the main gates and chased it onto the southbound Orange Freeway.

It continued to the eastbound Garden Grove Freeway and switched to the southbound Costa Mesa Freeway. The driver continued following the freeway as it became Newport Boulevard, which turns finally into the dead-end Channel Road.

During the chase, the driver reached 80 m.p.h. and crashed into two vehicles, which in turn caused six separate collisions but no serious injuries, authorities said.

“He rammed and sideswiped cars to get them to lose control and hit (the deputies’) cars,” Olmsted said.

Reaching the end of Balboa Peninsula, the suspect then drove the motor home off the road, officials said.

“We thought it would bog down in the sand and would have to stop,” Olmsted said, “but he was able to accelerate it and turned it around back on the sidewalk.”

The motor home sideswiped a Costa Mesa police car on the passenger side and crashed into two Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department cars.

Officers in those cars abandoned them and dove out of the way. When the driver continued to gun the engine, deputies feared for their safety and fired at him to stop the vehicle, Olmsted said.

The suspect then barricaded himself inside the motor home for 20 minutes, as authorities threw two firecrackers inside--in an attempt to flush the suspect out--and then sent a police dog from the Huntington Beach Police Department through the driver’s window, Olmsted said.

The dog bit the man four times on the leg and arm before he was taken into custody, Olmsted said.