Parolee booked after 8-city chase

A parolee suspected of drunk driving was caught by Huntington Beach police after allegedly evading officers in a two-part chase through eight cities.

Chino resident Marcelo Salvador Caparrotta, 40, was arrested early Monday morning and booked into the Huntington Beach Jail on suspicion of driving under the influence, evading police and violating parole, according to the Huntington Beach Police Department’s page on Facebook.

The chase started when Anaheim police tried to stop Caparrotta’s 2002 burgundy Chevrolet Malibu for alleged traffic violations 1:13 a.m. Monday, police reported. Caparrotta allegedly fled and police pursued him through Garden Grove, Fountain Valley, Costa Mesa and Newport Beach. Anaheim police stopped the chase in Newport.

About 20 minutes later, Huntington Beach police saw the car speeding west on Pacific Coast Highway at about 90 mph with its headlights off, police reported.

Officers say they began pursuing the car after watching it run a red light at Brookhurst Street. Caparrotta sped up to 110 mph as officers chased him, police reported.

Officers at PCH and Seapoint Avenue set up Stop Sticks, tools used to deflate tires, to stop Caparrotta. The equipment deflated some of the Malibu’s tires, but the car continued on PCH.

Police used more Stop Sticks at PCH and Warner Avenue to flatten more of the vehicle’s tires. Caparrotta continued driving west along PCH at a slower speed, police reported.

The chase continued through Seal Beach and into Long Beach, where Huntington police used a pursuit intervention technique, or PIT, to finally stop Caparrotta at PCH and 2nd Street.

PIT is a maneuver used by police to spin the suspect’s vehicle around to disable it, police reported.

Caparrotta is scheduled to appear at the West Justice Center on Tuesday.

—Britney Barnes