Wounded Motor-Home Driver Faces 15 Charges

Authorities filed 15 felony charges Friday against a man who allegedly stole a motor home in Diamond Bar and led deputies on a chase that ended at Balboa Peninsula, where officers shot and wounded him.

Elliott Martin Hoffman, 20, of Diamond Bar was critically injured by gunshot wounds and dog bites. He was in stable condition Friday at Western Medical Center-Santa Ana. He will be arraigned when his condition improves, Orange County Deputy Dist. Atty. Jim Tanizaki said.

The chase began at 4:45 a.m. Monday at a motor-home storage lot in Diamond Bar. Hoffman drove the mobile home up to 80 m.p.h. and caused collisions on the Orange, Garden Grove and Costa Mesa freeways, investigators said.

The chase ended at 6 a.m. at the tip of Balboa Peninsula, where the suspect sideswiped a Costa Mesa police car and crashed into two L.A. County Sheriff’s Department vehicles, officers said.

The district attorney’s office said the crashes are considered assaults with a dangerous weapon.

Deputies of those cars jumped onto the grass near the water, but Hoffman reportedly continued to gun the motor home’s engine, according to L.A. County Sheriff’s Sgt. Robert Olmsted.

At least six deputies fired into the driver’s window when they thought he was going to drive toward officers, Olmsted said.

It was not known how many bullets were fired, but Hoffman received three gunshot wounds. He did not have a gun.

One bullet ricocheted off a glass balcony door on a second floor of a nearby home.

Hoffman then barricaded himself inside the motor home for 20 minutes until officials sent a dog from the Huntington Beach Police Department into the driver’s window. The dog bit the man on the leg and arm before he was arrested.

The charges, which carry penalties totaling a maximum of 10 years in prison, include two counts of auto theft, three counts of assault with a deadly weapon against peace officers, nine counts of assault with a deadly weapon on civilians and one count of evading arrest, Tanizaki said.