A 66-year-old woman carrying grocery bags in a crosswalk was struck by a pursuit driver in a stolen Toyota Prius Thursday during a frightening chase in Los Angeles' Harbor City area.
The chase began just before 1 p.m. in the South Bay after a report of a suspected DUI driver and carjacking. The driver entered a parking structure at the Del Amo Fashion Center in Torrance and, at about the same time, another carjacking was reported in the same general area involving a Prius.
Details about the car-jackings were not immediately available.
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Torrance police spotted the stolen Prius and chased the driver into the Harbor City area for about four miles.
The driver was speeding on the wrong side of the street and blowing through stoplights in Harbor City before the Prius hopped a curb and knocked down a pole.
The damaged Prius was slowing when it was tapped from behind by a patrol SUV. The car was sent into a slide and struck Maria Salazar, crossing the street at Vermont Avenue and Sepulveda Boulevard.
"I was crossing the street, and I don’t remember anything," Salazar told Telemundo52. "I just felt the impact."
Salazar's daughter, Diana, said she is still trying to wrap her head around what happened.
"I don't know why they were chasing him," she said. "The urgency of stopping him. I don't know if they saw my mom."
She was knocked to the ground, but got back up and walked home. Salazar did not appear to be seriously injured as she talked with firefighter-paramedics. She later went to a hospital to get checked out.
Police later confirmed there were no serious injuries. Torrance police told NBCLA all officers are trained in pursuit intervention techniques, aka PIT maneuvers.
"Due to the seriousness of the crime (two car-jackings and one stolen vehicle) and the ongoing threat to the public, Torrance Police Officers initiated a pursuit," Torrance police said in a statement Thursday evening. "A Torrance Officer intervened and struck the suspect vehicle near Vermont and Sepulveda, which struck a pedestrian. After a brief foot pursuit, the suspect was arrested without incident and released to the custody of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, the originating agency. Torrance Officers contacted the victim of the carjacking and a female adult pedestrian who was involved at the termination of the pursuit, and no serious injuries were reported at the time. The female pedestrian refused treatment at the scene by emergency medical services, and left the scene voluntarily.
Torrance Police Department was subsequently informed the pedestrian went to the hospital."
The driver ran from the Prius, but was taken into custody at a nearby Carl's Jr restaurant. Details about his identity were not immediately available.
