Glendale Police Pursuit Ends With Dramatic, Hollywood Movie Style Smashup at Busy Pasadena Intersection

Reportedly as many as a dozen Glendale police squad cars pursued a stolen 1994 Toyota Corolla on Pasadena city streets late Tuesday afternoon, ending with a Hollywood movie-like smashup at a busy Pasadena intersection.

The pursuit began near Chevy Chase and Broadway in Glendale shortly after 4 p.m.

Glendale Police Sgt. Roger Williams said a Glendale officer attempted to stop a car which was reported as stolen in Pasadena, but the suspect fled, leading numerous Glendale units and an airship on a pursuit.

The pursuit — which never exceeded 40 miles per hour — wound through surface streets in Eagle Rock until the suspects drive onto the I-134 eastbound, exited on Lake Avenue where he headed south to Walnut Street, where he headed east again.

At the intersection of Walnut Street and Hill Avenue, Glendale officers executed a maneuver to terminate the pursuit, said Pasadena police Lt. Pete Hettema, who also said that no Pasadena police units at all were involved in the pursuit.

Eyewitness Pasadena resident Pamela Reible and her husband were about to enter the intersection when they heard approaching sirens and saw the suspect driving the stolen car “flying through the intersection, then the cops came flying through.”

Reible said she saw one Glendale police car collide with the stolen car, pushing it into a civilian’s car, which in turn rammed into another civilian’s car.

“Then he [the suspect] backed up and was actually driving backwards going down Walnut — it was crazy,” Reible said.

It was all over in a flash, she said. The reversing suspect was immediately surrounded and taken into custody by the large police contingent.

Hettema said that the two civilian cars, a 2000 Kia and a 2013 Honda, received moderate damage in the incident. Their occupants were not treated for injuries.

The suspect was identified by authorities as Juan Arriaga, a 19 year-old homeless man.

Arriaga was transported to a local hospital “complaining of chest pain. In the custody of Glendale [Police Department]”, a Pasadena Fire Department spokesperson said.