Hit-and-run crash on L.A. freeway unleashes bizarre manhunt, police shooting

A multi-vehicle hit-and-run crash on an L.A. freeway Tuesday afternoon snarled traffic and unleashed a bizarre series of events resulting in a manhunt, at least one arrest of a man in his underwear, two suspects still on the loose and a police shooting that left an uninvolved woman hospitalized.  

Officers with the California Highway Patrol responded to reports of the three-car crash in the eastbound lanes of the 134 Freeway, west of Figueroa in the area of Eagle Rock, at around 3 p.m. 

Preliminary reports suggest that at least three males in one of the involved vehicles fled the scene on foot, prompting CHP to call L.A. police for backup.  

Brother and sister Alana Altmeyer and Guy Binn who were traveling on the freeway told KTLA’s Mary Beth McDade that they saw one of the suspects walking away from the crash.  

“I saw a gentleman walking on the shoulder,” Altmeyer explained. “So, my brother and I went over and assumed that he was leaving the scene of an accident.”  

When the pair chased after him, she said the man tried to run to the opposite side of the freeway and fell.  

“He was bleeding from his head, his mouth and his knees,” Altmeyer added. 

Despite his injuries, the suspect still reportedly was able to jump over the side of the freeway and run down an embankment.  

“I chased him down the side of the freeway, across the freeway, over a couple of fences,” Binn told KTLA. “He had a bag and a sweater. I got his bag. I got his sweater and me being so old, I couldn’t keep up with the guy. I chased him to the park, and I lost him.” 

L.A. police eventually caught up with the suspect near the intersection of Waldo Place and Eagle Vista Drive.  

The suspect, attempting to blend into the neighborhood, stripped down to his boxer shorts, jumped in a resident’s swimming pool and watered some plants. 

The high-stakes incident grew even more confusing and dangerous while police were setting up a perimeter in the neighborhood to try and snare that suspect.  

A woman allegedly armed with a gun came out of a residence in the 1200 block of Eagle Vista Drive. Police told KTLA that she was given multiple commands to drop the weapon before officers fired on her, hitting her in the shoulder before she ran back inside the residence.  

Amid the police shooting, Sky5 was over the scene as the man in his boxers was found and taken into custody.  

A short time later, the same armed woman and another female, later identified as her babysitter, stepped out of the residence with their hands raised. The pair were ordered down the driveway and onto the street where they were both detained without further incident.  

Investigating officers determined that the woman armed with the gun was a homeowner and not a suspect in the hit-and-run on the 134 Freeway. She was driven to medical personnel with the L.A. Fire Department, who were on standby in the area, and taken to the hospital for non-life-threatening injuries.  

Both she and her babysitter were released from police custody.  

Fire officials said that a woman involved in the multi-car crash on the freeway suffered moderate injuries and was also taken to the hospital.

Police said two of the male suspects who fled the scene of the crash on the 134 Freeway remain at large.