Fleeing Suspect Calls Pals for Help

Employing two hallmarks of Southern California freeway culture, the mobile phone and the high-speed chase, a Seal Beach robbery suspect telephoned friends Wednesday night to help him escape pursuing police, authorities said.

Trayveon Choyce, 28, reportedly called his girlfriend and another person and asked them to block or ram their cars into a fleet of police cars during an hourlong chase.

By the time Choyce was taken into custody in the Crenshaw area, his girlfriend had suffered a broken arm after plowing into at least two police vehicles, and Choyce had bashed into numerous other cars before abandoning his pickup truck, officials said.

The second accomplice, who weaved in front of several police cars during the chase in an attempt to slow them, escaped.

Choyce, who is unemployed, is a suspect in a robbery two years ago at Rockwell Federal Credit Union in Seal Beach, in which five men marched tellers into a vault at gunpoint. Three were arrested after a lengthy police chase, and Choyce was one of the remaining suspects.

Seal Beach police and the FBI had placed his Lakewood apartment under surveillance on Tuesday, based on a tip from an informant.

Authorities tried to arrest Choyce on Wednesday evening as he drove off in his Ford pickup. Police said Choyce refused to pull over and instead sped onto the northbound 605 Freeway.

Pursued by Seal Beach police, the FBI, the California Highway Patrol, the Los Angles County Sheriff’s Department and other agencies, Choyce reportedly kept the cell phone to his ear as he bumped into and weaved among cars on three freeways, police said.

Girlfriend’s Car Strikes Two Cruisers

“He was continually on that cell phone,” Seal Beach Police Sgt. Michael Vasquez said. “We could see him through the rear window and he had the phone to his ear the whole time.”

When Choyce drove onto Crenshaw Boulevard, his friends appeared and the demolition began, police said.

His girlfriend, identified as Erica Arnold, 21, drove along the right shoulder of the boulevard, avoiding a line of stopped vehicles, then veered left and struck a Seal Beach police cruiser, sending it spinning, officers said.

As Choyce crossed the median strip and drove south on Crenshaw, Arnold reportedly rammed her car into a Sheriff’s Department cruiser, then aimed at another but missed.

She and Choyce then sped off in opposite directions and police scrambled to keep pace. Choyce was captured at Crenshaw and 43rd Street when he jumped out of his truck and tried to flee. Arnold was arrested on Slauson Avenue after colliding with a parked car.

At a hearing in U.S. District Court in Santa Ana on Thursday, Choyce delayed his arraignment on the bank robbery charge until later this month. Charges are pending in connection with the pursuit.

Arnold was booked on suspicion of attempted murder of a police officer and assault with a deadly weapon.

“This is a first for me,” Vasquez said. “I’ve been doing this 33 years and nobody’s ever called their friends during a chase.”