Car Chase Ends in Rancho Palos Verdes With Two Arrests

Two men wanted for questioning in a concealed-weapon investigation were arrested Friday morning after leading officers in a pursuit from South Los Angeles through the Harbor Gateway area into Rancho Palos Verdes, police said.

The pursuit began around 2:15 a.m. after officers on patrol in South Los Angeles spotted a silver Mercedes Benz they believed had been involved in a pursuit Wednesday night. A witness reported seeing someone place a firearm, possibly a MAC-10 submachine gun, in the back of a silver Mercedes Benz, said Lt. Manny Santoyo of the Los Angeles Police Department's 77th Street Station.

The driver of car had eluded officers Wednesday night and officers who tried to pull over a car matching the vehicle's description on Thursday night broke off pursuit when the driver began speeding dangerously.

The Mercedes was spotted again early Friday morning in Watts, but officers lost track of the car, Santoyo said. An LAPD air unit, however, spotted the vehicle and followed it as it sped southbound, then northbound on the San Diego (405) Freeway, he said. The car then got on the southbound Harbor (110) Freeway and exited in the Harbor Gateway area with the helicopter and patrol cars in pursuit, according to Santoyo. The Mercedes jumped a curb and hit a garage in the 2100 block of Redondela Drive in Rancho Palos Verdes and the driver and a passenger fled on foot, he said. 

Officers chased down both men, one around 28 and the other approximately 29 years old, and arrested them around 3 a.m., he said. A loaded shotgun was found in the back of the Mercedes, he added.

The men's names were not immediately released, and it was not immediately announced what they will be booked for.