2 Arrested in Glendale After Chase on 6 Freeways

Two men suspected of robbing stores in Cerritos and Long Beach were arrested Wednesday evening in a parking lot of the Glendale Galleria shopping center after a 40-minute pursuit on six freeways, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department reported.

During the chase, the men allegedly fired a gun at a California Highway Patrol car, said Sgt. George Boswell of the Lakewood Sheriff’s station. There were no reports of injuries, he said.

The men, whose names were not immediately available, tried to flee after abandoning the allegedly stolen vehicle, but police arrested them at Central Avenue and Harvard Street, Boswell said.

A shotgun, a handgun and an unspecified amount of cash were found in the car, Boswell said. The weapons were believed to have been used in a robbery shortly after 7 p.m. at the Robinson’s department store in the Los Cerritos Center mall in Cerritos, Boswell said.

The men and the car in which they fled matched a description of two suspects and a vehicle involved in a robbery in Long Beach earlier Wednesday in which shots were fired, Boswell said. Details of the Long Beach robbery were unavailable.

The chase began in Cerritos after deputies were alerted to the robbery, Boswell said. Officers pursued the car at speeds up to 85 m.p.h. on the Artesia, Long Beach, San Bernardino, Golden State, Pasadena and Ventura freeways, Boswell said.

The car left the Pasadena Freeway in South Pasadena, where it was involved in a minor traffic accident, Boswell said. The suspects entered the Ventura Freeway, took the Central Avenue exit in Glendale a short time later and drove south before stopping at the Galleria, Boswell said.