Residents Chase, Capture 2 Suspects Fleeing Accident Scene, Police Say

A drunk driver who ran a stop sign and crashed into a car tried to run away, but neighborhood residents chased him and a passenger and held them till police arrived, authorities said Monday.

Police arrested Jose Manuel Valles, 18, of San Fernando after a group of men in the working-class North Hollywood neighborhood found him hiding in shrubbery about half a block from the accident scene Sunday night.

Valles, a 19-year-old passenger and another young man all began running from the intersection of Beck Avenue and Archwood Street after their truck slammed into the side of a 1991 Toyota Supra and knocked it into two parked cars about 9:15 p.m., witnesses said.

The driver of the Supra, a 31-year-old woman who had been returning from work, was treated at Providence Holy Cross Medical Center in Mission Hills and released.

As residents began coming outside to see what had happened, Valles and the 19-year-old began running north on Beck Avenue, witnesses said. The other passenger fled in another direction, they said.

Fernando Marquez and at least three other men began pursuing the two on the street. When the passenger looked over his shoulder and saw the men behind him, he stopped on the sidewalk and surrendered, the pursuers said.

The pursuers found Valles in the bushes outside a home up the block.