Pursuit suspect crashes into Woodland Hills bank

WOODLAND HILLS, Calif. (FOX 11) - Police arrested a man Tuesday after he crashed his car into a Chase bank in Woodland Hills, triggering a standoff with police, following a pursuit during which he waved a weapon out of his car window and
pointed it at officers, authorities said.

Police began pursuing the man for reckless driving, at which point he pointed a gun at the police officer pursuing him, said Lt. Carl Taylor, the watch commander at the LAPD's Van Nuys Station. The chase began around midnight.

The pursuit ended when the man slammed his black BMW into the Chase bank at Ventura Boulevard and De Soto Avenue. He was driving at such a high rate of speed that the vehicle fully pierced the building, Taylor said.

Officers and their SWAT Team colleagues took up positions outside the bank, believed to be at 20900 Ventura Blvd., as they awaited crisis negotiators. The man was armed and moving around inside the bank, Taylor said.

Police recorded a message from the man's 17-year-old daughter and played it over the bank's PA system to coax her father out of the building, said LAPD Sgt. Felipe Vasquez of the Van Nuys Station.

The man sent a text to a family member saying he was going to kill himself and to "watch the news," Vasquez said.

The man was injured in the BMW crash and was seen being ferried away in an ambulance, but there were no other people injured in the crash, Taylor said.

The man's name was not immediately released.

City News Service contributed to this report