Three-Hour Chase Ends in Standoff on Freeway

A Lancaster man who claimed he was a CIA agent allegedly stole a spear gun from a Newport Beach dive shop and was wounded by officers during a three-hour police chase Wednesday afternoon that ended in a standoff on the westbound 210 Freeway.

Gregory Cabral, 35, was listed in serious but stable condition at Providence Holy Cross Medical Center in Mission Hills Wednesday night with three gunshot wounds to his head, wrist and chest, Newport Beach Police Sgt. John Desmond said.

The wrist wound was the most severe, Desmond said, and the head and chest injuries were superficial.

The chase that served as a long-running drama on many Los Angeles television stations ended shortly before 6 p.m., when the driver staggered out of his pickup truck, walking unsteadily and bleeding. CHP officers holding him at gunpoint handcuffed Cabral, who appeared to pass out as Los Angeles Fire Department paramedics prepared to move him to a gurney and a waiting ambulance.

The pursuit started about 4 p.m. after Newport Beach K-9 officers spotted a man driving a red pickup north on Pacific Coast Highway. Recognizing the car’s description from a police radio report of a petty theft at a local dive shop, the officers followed the man through Huntington Beach.

Newport Beach officers attempted to stop the car in Long Beach near Atherton Street and Bellflower Boulevard, the intersection where police fired shots at the truck, Desmond said. No other details of the shooting were available.

Lein Jenkins, a manager at the Aquatic Center on West Coast Highway in Newport Beach, said Cabral attempted to pay for a $135 spear gun there with a personal check. The store clerk rejected it after a check found insufficient funds in the man’s account, he said.

In response, Jenkins said, the man replied, “I’m with the CIA and I’ll take this gun for evidence because it’s stolen.”

Walking out with the spear gun, Cabral stopped a customer walking into the shop, identified himself as from the CIA and told the customer he was under arrest, Desmond said. The customer ignored him.

Jenkins said he followed the man to his truck, and as Jenkins wrote down the license plate number, he said, the man recited the plate numbers to help him before waving and driving off.

“He was super casual, it was like a totally funny scene,” Jenkins said. “It was just like a customer coming in and walking out with something.”

CHP officers in Los Angeles joined the pursuit about 4:30 p.m. on the northbound 605 Freeway near South Street in Cerritos, CHP Officer Shirley Gaines said. Pursuit speeds ranged from 40 to 70 mph.

The pickup, with a large lumber rack over the cab and payload area, traveled north on the 605 Freeway, then west on the 210 Freeway. The driver appeared calm, with his elbow resting on the open window sill as if he were on a Sunday drive, though he was bleeding from gunshot wounds.

He drove through Arcadia, Monrovia, Pasadena and La Canada before smoke rising from beneath the pickup’s hood forced the truck to stall near the Lowell Avenue exit about 5:10 p.m.

About a dozen CHP patrol cars formed a semicircle about 30 yards behind the pickup, with officers shouting on bullhorns for the driver to surrender. Traffic moved slowly but unimpeded on the eastbound 210 Freeway, where a few cars stopped on the shoulder and median to get a better view.

The pickup driver remained for more than 40 minutes in the cab of the truck, ignoring officers’ commands, until finally emerging.

It was not known Wednesday night what charges Cabral will face. But the list will begin with petty theft and evading arrest, Desmond said.