The city of El Segundo, California saw a whole lot of police action on May 30, 2022 … without much rhyme or reason to it.
According to a Facebook post, police received a report of a "male slumped over a wheel" of a parked car around 7:30am on a Friday morning. Paramedics arrived, and one looked inside the car and swore they saw a handgun.
The paramedics backed off and alerted ESPD officers to the presence of the firearm. We established a containment of the area , REACT team, and began to conduct call-outs for the occupant(s). The driver could be seen moving inside the vehicle but did not comply with the orders to exit the vehicle. Additional resources were deployed including, outside agency assistance for traffic control, K-9's, Armored Vehicle Bearcat, Drones and Crisis Negotiators.
This already seems overkill for, uhhh, an unconscious person who may or may not possibly maybe have a handgun near him somewhere.
This huge squadron of police remained in position around the car for hours, until eventually, the driver woke up. He opened the door, looked around, then panicked and drove off again … though not before reversing into one of the Bearcat tanks, oops. A car chase ensued! But they ultimately lost track of the guy.
The police allegedly remained on high alert for the next two hours, then eventually received a phone call about a vehicle parked illegally in an alley adjacent to a nearby high school. They notified the school about the impending threat — although curiously didn't lock the school down, or offer any sort of protection, despite the fact that they believed the person in this car to be armed.
When the police arrived on the scene, the car was abandoned. They searched the vehicle and found "numerous power tools," including a sawzall — something "commonly used by burglars to cut and steal catalytic converters from vehicles," the police insisted — but alas, no handgun.
LA Taco captures some of the community response to this absolute clusterfuck. Suffice to say, local residents were not so pleased that a legion of armored cops with tanks both failed to apprehend a sleeping person, and also that they failed to do anything to protect the schools beyond telling them (falsely) that they had the situation under control. Naturally, the city has responded to this situation by … deploying more police officers at schools.
To be clear: it's entirely possible this was in fact a stolen vehicle, and that the suspect did in fact have a handgun somewhere in the car. But there was still no need for a 5-hour standoff and car chase that still failed to secure the community.
Surrounded by SWAT and K9 Units, suspect escapes cops and armored vehicles in El Segundo, after hours long standoff [Lexis-Olivier Ray / LA Taco]
Image via Reddit
