Deputies Kill Woman After High-Speed Chase, Standoff

A 25-year old Los Angeles woman who led authorities on a high-speed chase near Bakersfield early Wednesday was shot and killed after she pointed a pistol at a crowd of Kern County sheriff’s deputies, officers said.

The shooting ended a 90-m.p.h. chase followed by an hourlong standoff with deputies after the woman, who was reportedly wearing a formal dress, stopped her van on a rural stretch of highway, sheriff’s Sgt. Wim Leyden said.

The incident began about 10 a.m. when the woman failed to yield to officers after being clocked for driving her Ford van in excess of 90 m.p.h. along California 119. Layder said the ensuing pursuit lasted about 15 minutes, ending when the driver pulled over on the highway near Gosford Road in a rural area near Bakersfield.

Deputies saw the woman holding the pistol and gathered at the rear of the van. “They tried to get her to give up the gun and get out of the car but all she did was make gestures at them,” Leyden said.

Finally, he added, “she got out and went to the front of the car and raised her gun at the deputies, at the same time extending her other arm around her back.”

A deputy fired a single shot, officers said, instantly killing the woman. Leyden said.

Videotape taken by a local television station, however, does not show the woman holding a weapon. The videotape shows the woman getting out of the van with her arms lowered in front of her body. As the woman moves toward the front of the van, she puts her left arm behind her back and is felled by the deputy’s gunshot.

The woman was pronounced dead at the scene. Her identity is being withheld pending notification of relatives.

Leyden said they had no information on any possible criminal record and have not been able to establish the ownership of the van, which was registered to a Los Angeles automobile dealer.