Calif. Officer Injured, Cruiser Totaled in Chase

Jan. 31, 2012
A Buena Park man was arrested Saturday night after a high-speed car chase that totaled a police cruiser, caused minor injuries to a police officer and damaged a parked ca

A Buena Park man was arrested Saturday night after a high-speed car chase that totaled a police cruiser, caused minor injuries to a police officer and damaged a parked car, authorities said.

Ronnie Armstrong, 20, was booked in Orange County Jail and charged with assault with a deadly weapon on a police officer, possession of stolen property, felony evading and hit-and-run, said Lt. John Keely of the Garden Grove Police Department. The injured officer was identified as Gerald Jordan.

Armstrong was detained after police in Anaheim made a countywide broadcast Friday advising local police agencies that a black Cadillac CTS had been stolen.

An off-duty Garden Grove police officer spotted a vehicle matching that description Saturday at Euclid and Chapman and summoned several on-duty officers. The driver sped away, reaching 100 mph.

Officers chased the car for about a mile; the driver then pulled into a residential cul-de-sac and struck a parked car.

As a police officer drove into the cul-de-sac, the driver reversed and struck the marked police vehicle, disabling it, Keely said.

The driver then drove into the front yard of a house, drove straight through a wooden fence of another house and abandoned the vehicle in a back yard, after which he fled on foot.

Officers from the Sheriff's Department and Anaheim and Garden Grove police departments created a perimeter as a police helicopter circled overhead. Armstrong was found hiding in the back yard of a nearby residence.

His bail had not been set, but amounts for charges of felony evasion can reach $100,000.

949-492-5135 or [email protected]

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