Parolee Held in Fatal 4-Vehicle La Habra Crash

One man was killed and a second was arrested for vehicular manslaughter Friday, after a high-speed chase through La Habra that ended in a four-car crash on the steps of the city’s Fire Department, authorities said.

The suspect, Chandler Emile Graham, 31, of Buena Park, was identified by police as a convicted kidnaper on parole who has 10 aliases.

Just after 1 p.m., La Habra police received a call from Brea police about a car being driven recklessly from Brea into La Habra on Lambert Boulevard. A La Habra motorcycle officer spotted the sedan, which had turned onto Cypress Street, and ordered the driver to pull over. But when the officer approached the stopped car, it took off, police said.

A patrol unit and then another motorcycle officer picked up the chase as it wound onto La Habra Boulevard, past the Police Department at speeds of 60-70 m.p.h., Lt. John W. Buchholz said. The officers lost sight of the car until they arrived at the scene of the crash near the intersection of La Habra and Monte Vista Avenue.

Buchholz said that one car traveling in the opposite direction on La Habra, started to make a left turn onto Monte Vista when the fleeing driver swerved across the center divider, setting off the chain-reaction crash that also involved another car and two trucks. The sedan came to rest on the steps of the Fire Department.

“Somebody at the scene thought it was a plane crash, it was so loud,” Buchholz said.

Police said Tore O. Johanson, 66, of Lakewood, who was driving the other car, died at the scene. His wife, Shirley, 68, had to be cut out of the car and was flown to UCI Medical Center, where she was reported in fair but guarded condition.

Graham, who was injured, was being held at the jail ward at Western Medical Center-Santa Ana.

Frank Pruter, 71, of Whittier, was injured slightly when his pickup truck was hit. He was and taken to a Friendly Hills Regional Hospital in La Habra.

Buchholz said an opened quart-size bottle of beer was found in Graham’s car.