MID-CITY : Suspected Vehicle Thief Is Killed in Police Chase

A suspected vehicle thief was killed this week when he rolled the pickup truck he was driving on the Santa Monica Freeway in a high-speed chase with police.

The 26-year-old victim, whose name is not being released pending notification of his family, allegedly stole the Toyota pickup early Monday. Police said that at about 1:15 a.m. they spotted him driving the truck in tandem with a BMW driven by two alleged accomplices.

The officers stopped both vehicles at Sepulveda and Wilshire boulevards. But when the occupants of the BMW--a man and a woman--stepped out of the vehicle, the truck sped off, heading south on the San Diego Freeway and then turning east onto the Santa Monica Freeway with police in pursuit.

Approaching the La Brea Avenue exit in Mid-City, the pickup ran up on an embankment and flipped, said Los Angeles Police Lt. Frank Spangler. The driver was thrown from the truck and apparently killed when he was hit by a passing vehicle.

Police said that inside the pickup they found a slide hammer--a tool commonly used to remove car ignitions during vehicle thefts. The truck’s ignition had been ripped out, Spangler said.

Authorities said the alleged accomplices, an unidentified 21-year-old man and a 16-year-old girl, were arrested on suspicion of murder because the victim was killed in the commission of a felony.