Northwest : HUNTINGTON BEACH : Driver of Stolen Car Nearly Hits Officer

A police officer was nearly struck Tuesday morning as he approached the driver of a stolen vehicle registered to City Councilman Earle Robitaille, police said.

The officer was not injured and the vehicle was later found abandoned on the shoulder of the San Diego Freeway between Beach Boulevard and Magnolia Street, said Police Lt. Chuck Poe.

The vehicle was one of two Hondas spotted by the officer at 4:55 a.m. at Beach Boulevard and Edinger Avenue. A license plate check revealed that one of the cars was registered to Robitaille, Poe said.

Suspicious, the officer followed the cars to a nearby gas station, where he approached the driver of Robitaille’s car for questioning. The driver “put the car in gear and tried to run him over,” Poe said.

The officer fired two shots at the passenger side of the vehicle, then pursued the driver, who was heading east on the San Diego Freeway. A search was conducted after the officer found the car abandoned.

A passenger, Rene Briddle, 19, of Norwalk, was located in the vicinity of the abandoned car and arrested on suspicion of grand theft auto. She remains in the Huntington Beach City Jail in lieu of $10,000 bail. The drivers of the two cars, described by police as males in their late teens or early 20s, remained at large Tuesday. The second vehicle was not recovered, Poe said.

Robitaille said his son, Eric, 29, had stayed overnight at a friend’s house. At 5 a.m., as Eric Robitaille was leaving for work, he discovered the car had been stolen.