A motorist who fled from officers in La Jolla on April 28 crisscrossed coastal San Diego for about 45 minutes before pulling over in the East Village and escaping on foot.
Patrol personnel were responding to a request to check on the man’s welfare when they found and tried to contact him as he sat in a parked Honda Accord in the area of Caminito Eastbluff and Via Sonoma about 5:15 p.m., according to police.
Seeing them, the man drove off, and the officers followed and tried in vain to pull him over.
The suspected driver, Ahran Haugley, fled to the north through La Jolla, driving so recklessly that police backed off the chase for safety reasons, San Diego Police Department Officer Robert Heims said.
The motorist, believed to be in his early 40s, continued north, pulling over briefly in a Del Mar commercial parking lot before driving in the direction of Solana Beach.
Near the Del Mar Race Track, the man turned to the east then entered I-5 and headed south. He then went through Carmel Valley, merged onto I-805 and then entered state Route 163. After traversing Mission Valley and Hillcrest, he arrived in downtown San Diego.
A police helicopter crew watched as the man drove on city streets for several blocks and pulled into an underground parking lot below a multi-use building in the 900 block of F Street. Officers found the man’s car abandoned inside the parkade, Heims said.
Police took up positions in the area and searched the building and surrounding areas for the driver, but he was not found, and the search ended about 7:30 p.m., Heims said. — FOX 5