Chase Went by the Book, Officials Say : Tactics: Police used superior numbers and equipment to arrest man while averting harm to his hostage and the public. Some previous pursuits have provoked criticism of officers.

When it was over, when the adrenaline rush had faded and the police had gotten their man, authorities found satisfaction in a job well done: virtually a textbook example of a high-speed pursuit in which the combined efforts of law enforcement agencies using superior equipment and cool heads resulted in the capture of a dangerous suspect while averting harm to his hostage and the public.

“Certainly looked like it was handled the way it should be,” said a criminal justice professor who has criticized police pursuits as outmoded and dangerous, after watching a live TV broadcast of the chase and arrest of a suspect in the shooting of a Pomona police officer.

Professionalism and restraint, Santa Ana Police Sgt. Art Echternacht said, brought a successful end to the chase that began with a bloody shootout in Pomona and ended about 50 circuitous miles and 80 minutes later in a Santa Ana cul-de-sac.

“A lot of officers wanted to join in but held back because they knew it would be disastrous if they did,” Echternacht said. “It could have gone very badly. The officers could have just started shooting at random.”

The climax of the pursuit was a contrast to some other recent law enforcement chases in Southern California that left several motorists and bystanders dead.

Last November, a spate of police chases in Los Angeles, Riverside and Ventura counties resulted in three people dying when cars driven by fleeing suspects crashed into them. In Temecula in June, six people, including four teen-agers, were killed when a car chased by U.S. Border Patrol agents crashed in front of a high school. Such incidents also can prove dangerous to air traffic, as was demonstrated in a 1987 collision between two police helicopters over Costa Mesa that resulted in three deaths.

By contrast, law enforcement officials portrayed Thursday’s televised chase as a highly competent operation that involved several police agencies, three sheriff’s departments and the California Highway Patrol.

James Lasley, an associate professor of criminal justice at Cal State Fullerton who has urged that police drastically curtail their pursuits, said Thursday’s chase was justified because it was obvious that the gun-wielding suspect, who fired several rounds at pursuing officers, was a greater risk to the public than the chase itself.

For police officers, it was particularly satisfying to capture the suspect in the fourth shooting of a police officer in recent weeks in Los Angeles and Orange counties.

The pursuit began after two suspects fled a crime scene in Pomona and shot Officer Roger Mathews. As suspects headed east toward Ontario in a station wagon, police units and a police helicopter joined the pursuit. The station wagon broke down near Ontario Airport. California Highway Patrol officers monitoring the chase by radio were stunned to realize that the suspects then ran through the CHP parking lot to Ewing Irrigation Services.

One suspect stole a company truck and was arrested a short time later. The other pointed a gun at employee Bob Moxley, forcing him to become a getaway driver.

Ontario Officers Mark Ortiz and Mark Shadley picked up the chase just as the commandeered navy blue pickup raced away.

“You just try to be as careful as possible, try not to hurt anyone. . . . You’re at a heightened level of awareness, trying to think about your training, trying to make sure no one gets hurt,” Ortiz said.

The presence of the hostage required extra caution.

Most frightening, the officers said, was when the suspect stuck his gun out the truck window and opened fire. “That’s where you put your seat down to the lowest position and duck,” Ortiz said. “Bullets fly in all sorts of directions.”

With the pickup truck hitting speeds up to 90 m.p.h., the chase turned south on the Riverside Freeway and entered Orange County. A helicopter pilot with the Orange County Sheriff’s Department became the lead coordinator of pursuing officers.

High-speed gun battles and attempts to shoot out the tires of a suspect’s car are more the stuff of Hollywood drama, spokesman for various agencies said. Many police agencies forbid shooting from or at moving vehicles because of the danger to the public.

Another reason the chase was successful, said Officer Glen Dominguez of the CHP, was that the public reacted to sirens by staying out of the way and allowing authorities to do their job. Law enforcement officials were not pleased when, during another televised chase last year, a well-intentioned motorist cut off a fleeing suspect in thick traffic.

Neither the good Samaritan nor pursuing officers could have known whether the fugitive was armed, Dominguez pointed out. As it was, the motorist had potentially placed himself in the line of fire. “It could have turned ugly really, really easily if this guy came out with a gun, “ Dominguez said.

During Thursday’s pursuit, officers in the car closest to the fleeing truck kept an eye on the gunman while trailing officers kept dispatchers updated about the location, Pena said. “When you’re the primary unit your adrenaline is pumping. . . . You don’t want to have to worry about calling out” directions, Pena said.

The truck turned south on the Costa Mesa Freeway, then west on the Garden Grove Freeway. It exited at Harbor Boulevard in Garden Grove. A short distance away, police cruisers took over the chase.

With a helicopter still relaying information from overhead, the truck entered northern Santa Ana, where it roared through red lights and dodged other vehicles as it raced along main thoroughfares and barreled down narrow residential streets.

The hostage and the gunman “were both real lucky that they both did not get killed,” Pena said.

Along Santa Ana streets, two police cruisers, with lights and sirens on, followed the truck while other units followed the chase in parallel positions on side streets.

Police attempted to divert traffic from the chase.

“There were no reports of any accident, no reports of anyone being hit by gunfire, there were no injuries,” said Santa Ana Police Sgt. Echternacht, shaking his head as if surprised.

High-Speed Chase Through Four Counties

The shooting of a police officer in Pomona on Thursday sparked an hourlong chase. Police officers and the CHP pursued a hijacked Ford pickup truck on five freeways in four counties before turning onto surface streets in Orange County. No one was injured in the chase. Pomona: How It Began

1. Two Pomona officers respond to a 911 call in the 1300 block of Chelsa Drive.

2. One suspect arrested two blocks away. Another wounds officer; he and a third man escape.

3. Vehicle breaks down in Ontario. Suspects abandon car, run to Ewing Irrigation Products on North Sacramento Avenue. One suspect is given keys to a Ewing car and flees.

4. His armed companion forces Ewing employee Robert Moxley behind the wheel of Moxley’s truck. He drives suspect to Interstate 10; chase begins. The Chase Route

Officers closely trailed the hijacked truck, sometimes about 90 m.p.h. on busy freeways. Then the truck traveled through a labyrinth of quiet residential streets in Garden Grove and Santa Ana. At one point, the suspect fired at police officers in pursuit. Santa Ana: Where It Ended

1. Pickup stops in cul-de-sac; Moxley gets out of truck, raises hands.

2. Suspect flees on foot along Warner Avenue.

3. Three shots are fired from police helicopter; airborne officer orders suspect to surrender.

4. Suspect discards gun.

5. Suspect leaps across three back-yard fences.

6. Suspect staggers through yard, raises arms, lies face down; officers arrest him in the 2300 block of South Warbler Circle.

Researched by CAROLINE LEMKE and JANICE L. JONES / Los Angele Times