3 Arrested After 88-Mile Chase

Three Palmdale robbery suspects led authorities on a chase at speeds in excess of 90 m.p.h. on five freeways Saturday before they were arrested in San Bernardino County when their car ran out of gas, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said.

The 88-mile chase began at 11:10 a.m. in Palmdale and ended at 12:50 p.m. in Colton, where Eric Walters, 19; James Gilmore, 25, and Susan Brown, 20, were taken into custody and held on suspicion of robbery and burglary, Deputy David Peltz said.

Three robbers grabbed clothes from the sporting goods department of the J.C. Penney store at the Antelope Valley Mall in Palmdale, Deputy Benita Hinojos said. Two store security guards tried to stop the three outside the store but yielded when one of the robbers threatened them with a gun.

The three then sped away in a 1984 Ford Mustang, Hinojos said. A sheriff’s helicopter spotted the maroon car heading south on the Antelope Valley Freeway at Santiago Road in Acton, and deputies from the Santa Clarita Station began their pursuit at Via Princessa.

Deputies followed the car south onto the Golden State Freeway, east on the Foothill Freeway and east on the San Bernardino Freeway, Hinojos said. Officers from the California Highway Patrol continued the pursuit in Ontario. The three were taken into custody at the Washington Avenue exit of the Barstow Freeway in Colton.

Authorities recovered the stolen clothing from inside the car, and a gun that was thrown out of the car during the chase, Peltz said.