Man Gets Four Years for Ramming Car Into Officer

A San Fernando man was sentenced Wednesday to four years in prison for driving his car into a California Highway Patrol officer after leading him on a highway chase, then refusing to get out of his car.

The officer shot and critically wounded Edward Ruben Pantoja, 31, after Pantoja hit him in the leg with his black Fiero. A television news crew which happened to be in the area captured the shooting on videotape.

Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Michael Harwin’s sentence was just short of the five-year maximum that Pantoja faced for an assault on a peace officer with a deadly weapon, his second run-in with police.

Harwin said that Pantoja “obviously learned nothing” from a Feb. 1 arrest in which police pepper-sprayed and hog-tied him after he refused to leave a Chatsworth gym.

He was out on bail for charges of trespassing and resisting arrest related to that incident when he baited CHP Officer Ronald Valencia by speeding, then tailgating him, Deputy Dist. Atty. Craig Richman said.

Pantoja led the officer on a chase, then stopped his car on the offramp at Vineland Avenue in North Hollywood and refused to get out.

As Valencia stood in front of the car, weapon drawn, Pantoja began to slowly drive away. Valencia stepped in front of the car and was hit, then fired his weapon.

The shooting was deemed justified by the CHP.

Pantoja’s defense attorney, Ralph Peretz, has already filed an appeal.