00:00i wasn't just gonna stand there watching this car come at me
00:05we're now at eleven o'clock a pulse-pounding pursuit comes to a crashing conclusion
00:09tonight we're hearing from the innocent man nearly caught in the wrong place at the wrong time
00:13and we're getting new details on the attempted grappler takedown
00:16leading to that driver violently crashing into a retaining wall
00:20but that's not how this all ended
00:22a lengthy standoff ensued
00:24and tonight we're learning the man inside that car eventually took his own life
00:28I went to the news reporter Liz Nagy with the latest on the wild chain of events.
00:33Late tonight, Belgrave Avenue is still locked down under active investigation.
00:37Police pursuit tactics and whether or not they were properly used
00:41will be a central focus in this investigation into a pursuit that killed a fleeing driver
00:46in the middle of a busy residential neighborhood.
00:49It was a moment that triggered an audible gasp, a speeding white Cadillac sedan
00:54slamming full force into a residential wall along Antigua Drive, careening off the road
01:00trying to evade the force of a police tool known as a grappler.
01:04I can't really tell what was going on, but once I seen a white car coming
01:07and the SUV right behind it, I'm like, this is it.
01:11On the other side of the wall, this man sprinted for his life.
01:14Even when I was running, I seen stuff like go past me.
01:18Did you even have time to be scared?
01:20No, it was just survival instinct.
01:21That instinct may have saved him.
01:23This was the smoky, deadly end to a police pursuit that sped through Harupa Valley
01:28and nearby towns for more than an hour, but that was hardly the end.
01:33By the time I went back, SWAT was already right there, like, get back, like, go back to your house.
01:37SWAT teams moved in.
01:39It was pretty scary.
01:40The sheriff's department told us just to, you know, stay in the house, don't come out,
01:44and to close the windows because they were using some sort of tear gas as well.
01:49Over the span of three hours, deputies shattered the sedan windows, set off flashbangs,
01:54filled the Cadillac with tear gas, hovered drones overhead, and prodded cameras into the car
01:59for any sign of life from the wanted driver who they believed may have been armed.
02:05Aiming from the safety of an armed SWAT vehicle, deputies moved in to discover the driver they'd pursued was dead
02:11inside.
02:12They got so many units, they could have, like, kind of pinned him in, slowed him down little by little.
02:17Now a group of roommates are left to clean up from a deadly police chase that they believe may have
02:23ended differently
02:24without what they think was a misguided use of the grappler.
02:28Late tonight, investigators with the Riverside County Sheriff's Office said when they pulled the driver from the car,
02:33he appeared to be dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
02:37Investigators say that suspect was wanted in connection to grand theft, but they've still not identified him.
02:43Reporting in Harupa Valley, Liz Nagy, ABC7 Eyewitness News.
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