Arrest Ends Hunt for Suspect in Car Chase to Encinal Canyon

• Armed Man Had Leveled Gun at Cop

BY HANS LAETZ

Residents of the hills above Pacific Coast Highway near Encinal Canyon Road had a nervous early morning Thursday, when an armed and dangerous man bailed out of his car after being chased up the hill by sheriff’s deputies.
A helicopter, police dogs and numerous sheriff’s deputies in squad cars could not find the suspect, who had leveled a pistol at a Los Angeles Police Department officer in Chatsworth and then led county sheriff’s deputies on a wild chase from the San Fernando Valley to the hills above west Malibu.
The man, Weslyn Dorner, eluded deputies in the steep canyon above Malibu and somehow got a ride back to Woodland Hills, and was dropped off a few blocks from his house.
Sheriff’s deputies said they arrested the man without incident as he walked down the street toward his residence at about 10:45 a.m. Thursday.
The long night began with an attempt by LAPD officers to pull over a 1996 Honda with paper license plates at Topanga Canyon Boulevard near Plummer Street at 11:35 p.m. Wednesday on a traffic violation.
“He blew through a red traffic light right in front of one of our units in the Valley, and we pursued him,” said Lost Hills Sheriff’s Station Lt. Rich Erickson.
A sheriff’s helicopter and several patrol cars chased the Honda south on Topanga Canyon Boulevard, and then west on the Ventura Freeway. At Kanan Road the suspect turned south, and fled over the mountains to Malibu with the helicopter overhead and black-and-whites on his tail.
After turning northwest on Pacific Coast Highway, the suspect drove past Zuma, Trancas and Broad beaches, then turned north on Encinal Canyon Road. At some point the gun may have been tossed onto a roadside, but deputies have been unable to find it, Erickson said.
At 12:20 a.m. Thursday, the car then rolled to a stop about 1-1/2 miles up the hill, and coasted backwards into the front of a squad car, Erickson said.
The suspect dashed into a brushy area and evaded arrest near several homes. Police dogs and the helicopter’s floodlights could not flush him out, and, by daybreak, the patrol cars were called out of the canyon, deputies said.
Dorner was charged with traffic offenses and felony fleeing charges, deputies said.