Man Arrested After 2-Hour Police Chase

A 28-year-old Commerce man led police on a looping, two-hour chase through Los Angeles, Orange and San Diego counties Saturday morning before being arrested without incident in Cerritos, officials said.

Eliseo Maldonado, a native of San Juan Capistrano, was booked into the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department Lakewood substation jail on suspicion of driving under the influence as well as evading arrest, a jail spokeswoman said. Maldonado was being held on an outstanding $30,000 warrant for a previous drunk driving arrest.

He will likely appear in court on Monday in East Los Angeles.

Los Angeles police officers began pursuing him at 12:37 a.m. near 7th and South Alvarado streets in Los Angeles after he failed to stop. Officers suspected that he was driving a stolen vehicle, officials said.

“It turns out it wasn’t stolen; he had his sister’s permission to drive the car,” said LAPD Sgt. Kohei Ishida. Police turned the chase over to the California Highway Patrol near the Santa Monica/San Diego Freeway interchange, Ishida said.

The suspect then drove his sister’s black Nissan Sentra south--through Orange County--before turning around in Oceanside--in San Diego County--and heading north through Orange County again. CHP arrested Maldonado about 3 a.m., after he exited the San Gabriel River Freeway at Alondra Boulevard, Ishida said.