Suspect in South L.A. Slaying Held After Leading Chase to Kern County

A murder suspect who allegedly shot and killed the owner of a South Los Angeles bakery Wednesday morning led police on a chase over more than 100 miles before his car broke down and he surrendered to authorities.

Police said Jose Sepeda, 25, walked into a bakery at 46th Street and Compton Avenue about 8:30 a.m. and accused the shop’s owner of having an affair with his wife. Sepeda apparently argued with the baker and the baker’s wife for about 75 minutes before allegedly ending the conversation by shooting the man in the chest, investigators said.

The gunman fled from the bakery in a late-1970s Oldsmobile Cutlass, but returned moments later and pointed a handgun at officers who were just arriving, police said.

Patrol officers immediately started chasing Sepeda in what became a two-hour, 45-minute ordeal televised live by local news helicopter crews.

As the chase unfolded, the baker--identified as Rolan Pineda--was transported by paramedics to County-USC Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.

Since police knew the driver was an armed murder suspect, they followed the vehicle with extreme caution, Los Angeles Police Department spokesman Lt. Anthony Alba said.

“The uniqueness of this chase was that we were pursuing a known murder suspect,” Alba said. “That changes some of the rules and some of the tactics in a pursuit. The officers gave him a wide berth and the [department’s] air unit orchestrated all the movements on the ground.”

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Throughout the pursuit, Sepeda allegedly brandished a semiautomatic handgun at patrol officers, the police helicopter and other motorists who got in his way. Because Sepeda was a murder suspect, LAPD officers remained the lead agency in the pursuit instead of yielding to the California Highway Patrol.

The chase, which involved speeds from a virtual crawl to up to 80 mph, proceeded mostly along Interstate 5 and ended on California 99 in Kern County shortly after the suspect’s car experienced engine trouble going over the Grapevine.

When Sepeda’s car finally rolled to a stop, LAPD officers shot out the vehicle’s tires. After a tense standoff with SWAT officers, who were training their guns at the Cutlass, Sepeda got out of the car with his hands up and surrendered.

“We utilized the one precious commodity that we had in this situation, and that was time,” Alba said. “It was a textbook ending to what was a potentially a very dangerous and deadly situation for many.”

Outside the bakery, nearby residents expressed sadness over Pineda’s death.

“I heard about five shots,” said Graciela Pintor, who lives across the street from the bakery. She said the baker was a “very nice person, very friendly.”

Hernan Garcia, another resident, said he goes to the bakery in the mornings to buy Mexican sweet bread and a newspaper.

“I was in there about a half-hour ago,” said a stunned Garcia, who watched the chase unfold on a television news crew’s monitor outside the bakery. “I heard all the commotion and came back and found out that there had been a shooting.”

Garcia said Pineda was a kind man who once lent him a baseball cap on a rainy day so his hair wouldn’t get wet.

After Sepeda was taken into custody, police interviewed his wife.

“The wife of the suspect stated that she was only a customer of the bakery,” Alba said. “She denied any romantic connection to the baker.”