Epic L.A. car chase led by man trained to drive by U.S. military

A suspected burglar and getaway driver who mesmerized Los Angeles on Thursday in an epic, televised car chase was a trained tactical vehicle driver for the U.S. Marine Corps before being “prematurely discharged” in January, the Pentagon confirmed Friday.

Herschel Reynolds, 20, both horrified and delighted Angelenos as he spun “doughnuts” in Hollywood, dodged a vigilante TMZ tour bus, and crisscrossed the city on a flat front tire before surrendering to sheriff’s deputies.

On Friday, the U.S. Military said that Reynolds had previously served as a motor vehicle operator for the 1st Marine Logistics Group at Camp Pendelton.

“Reynold’s premature discharge and rank are indicative of the fact that the character of his service was incongruent with Marine Corps’ expectations and standards,” the Pentagon said.

Reynolds served with the Marines for nearly two years as a private, according to military records.

Reynolds and passenger, Isaiah Young, 19, were both taken into custody near the intersection of South Central Avenue and East 51st Street, the same neighborhood they lived in.

On Friday, neighbors expressed shock that the pair had been accused of stealing jewelry from a home in Cerritos, and led authorities on a bizarre, rain-soaked chase.

“That’s crazy because they don’t seem like the people that would do that,” said Jasmine Diego, 18.

Diego said she watched the chase in disbelief. “You just see them all the time with their friends and family,” she said.

The men were raised in the same neighborhood and had a reputation for being jokers, said friends and acquaintances. They were always seen together and went to the same high school up the street, said Carla McKing, who lives in one of two homes listed as an address for the men.

“I know for a fact they were raised right. Their parents raised them right,” McKing said.

When they were younger, Young and Reynolds offered to cut neighbors’ lawns, McKing said.

“They try to be considerate. Very respectful,” she said. “What in the world is wrong with these boys. ... They just made a bad choice.”

Both men have been booked on suspicion of burglary, with Reynolds being held on $50,000 bond and Young on $80,000 bond, according to jail records.

Reynolds’ driving has landed him in trouble before, according to court records. He was booked on suspicion of reckless driving in the Compton area last April. However, prosecutors dismissed the charge in October, court records show.

The chase lasted about two hours and began with a report of a residential burglary in Cerritos at 1:24 p.m., after a rainstorm moved into Southern California. The burglars fled the home on Charlwood Street before deputies arrived, but neighbors were able to describe the suspects’ vehicle, a Ford Mustang convertible. Within minutes, a sheriff’s helicopter spotted the car on the westbound 91 Freeway.

Authorities said roads were too wet and the Mustang was weaving through traffic too dangerously for sheriff’s deputies to follow it, so they relied on a helicopter to monitor the vehicle instead.

But when the Mustang reached the interchange of the 110 and 101 freeways in downtown L.A., the California Highway Patrol took up the chase. The Mustang got off at Hollywood Boulevard. By that time it had already rear-ended one vehicle, and the passenger had stood up and waved at other drivers.

In Hollywood, with no police behind them, the driver began doing doughnuts in the middle of the street, spinning across all lanes of traffic and forcing other cars to stop. The car then motored west, where countless tourists got to see the Mustang drive against traffic by the TCL Chinese Theatre and Hollywood Walk of Fame.

From there, it was up to the Hollywood Hills, where the Mustang drove into opposing traffic lanes around blind curves, narrowly missing oncoming traffic, and fishtailed on rain-slick roads.

Without any vehicles close behind, the driver drove back through Hollywood’s tourist district and onto the freeway, where it was almost trapped by a TMZ tour bus that cut off its path as it tried to split two lanes.

TMZ addressed the run-in with the Mustang on its website.

“We’ve spoken to the driver ... who says he never even saw the chase coming behind him. He was innocently changing lanes and ended up cutting off the suspects,” TMZ said.

When the men finally stopped in their own neighborhood, they waited six or seven minutes for authorities to arrive and then held their wrists behind their backs to be handcuffed when sheriff’s deputies arrived at the scene.

Neighbor Narvie Lee Richmond told KNBC-TV Channel 4 that residents swarmed from their homes to help protect the suspects before police arrived. He said he told the pair to cooperate with police and surrender peacefully, which they did.

“I didn’t want to see no young black men getting killed,” Richmond told the station.

Twitter: @josephserna, @LAcrimes and @wjhenn