Chase Ends as Fleeing Car Hits Truck

Three bank robbery suspects fleeing police collided with another vehicle Tuesday, blocking a busy intersection as rescue teams extracted them from their car and officers stood by with guns drawn.

The suspects’ Cadillac struck a pickup truck at Knott and Chapman avenues about 10:45 a.m., demolishing both vehicles, police and witnesses said.

“It was very bad,” said Tom Le, 29, who witnessed the collision from the gas station where he works. “I saw parts going everywhere.”

The driver of the pickup, identified as Brett Stern, 19, of Garden Grove, was taken to UC Irvine Medical Center in Orange, where he was in fair condition, a hospital spokeswoman said. The three men in the car were all in critical condition Tuesday night at local hospitals, authorities said.

Garden Grove Police Lt. John Woods and other authorities gave this account of the events:

About 9:25 a.m., two men wearing ski masks entered the Farmers & Merchants Bank on Garden Grove Boulevard, vaulted over the counter and took money from cashiers. They fled with a third man in a Jeep Cherokee reported stolen in Los Angeles the night before and later found abandoned.

An hour later, the Union Bank of California at Brookhurst Street and Chapman Avenue was robbed by two men, one of whom handed a teller a note demanding money. No weapons were seen at either bank, but the two suspects in both incidents made threats.

A witness who saw two men run from the second bank robbery described their Cadillac, believed to be stolen, to police.

When the chase began, witnesses said, the suspects’ vehicle was traveling between 70 and 80 mph, while the patrol car was going slower.

Police later found money in the car that “we believe is tied back to the banks,” Woods said.

The FBI is also investigating.