The brief pursuit of a carjacking suspect in Newhall Thursday stopped abruptly, when the suspect slammed into the driver’s side of another car, then bolted from the crash, leading deputies on a foot chase through a mobile home park in Canyon Country.
As of 4:30 p.m., deputies were still looking for the carjacking suspect.
The pursuit began about 2:30 p.m. in Newhall and proceeded along Railroad Avenue to Soledad Canyon Road.
Deputies were pursuing a black Honda Accord on Soledad Canyon until the pursuit ended up in the westbound lanes of Soledad, after the suspect allegedly crashed into a gray Honda Accord, in front of the entrance to Greenbrier Estates mobile home park.
The T-boned car sustained noticeable damage — both the front and rear doors on the driver’s side crushed, the rear driver’s side wheel knocked off its axle.
The driver and one occupant of the gray Honda were injured.
One of the occupants remained trapped inside the wreckage until firefighters and paramedics with the Los Angeles County Fire Department arrived.
Once removed from the wreckage, the patient was placed in an ambulance and rushed to the hospital.
Traffic in both directions on Soledad was stopped by while deputies protected the crash site and other deputies searched for the suspected carjacker.
When the crash happened, and once traffic was stopped, two deputies with the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station stayed with the injured driver while at least eight deputies, with guns drawn, ran after the suspected carjacker.
Within 30 minutes, deputies had cordoned off a 2-block area just inside the mobile home park, with deputies stationed beside their respective vehicles, positioned to prevent traffic in and out.
At 4 p.m., deputies were still inside the contained perimeter.
“We’re still looking for him,” Sgt. Wayne Waterman said. “We’re holding a tight perimeter and doing a systematic grid search of the community,” he said. “We’re talking to all the people we need to.”
Waterman described the injuries of the grey Hondar occupant as “minor.”
At 4:10 p.m., deputies reported they were still looking for the suspect.
Jessica Miguel was sitting inside her pickup truck parked 40 feet from the entrance to the mobile home park and the crash.
She saw the whole thing, she said.
“I was in my truck on my phone and I saw him go by. He went head on into the other car,” she said. “All of a sudden, car parts went flying in the air,” she said. “(The suspect) got out of his car and went running into these (mobile home park) buildings.”
The suspected carjacker ran right past the injured driver left trapped inside his car, she said.
“I feel for that person (who was injured in the initial car crash),” Miguel said, “but, help was on the scene right away.”
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