3-Freeway Chase Ends in Arrest

SANTA ANA —  A 25-year-old truck driver was arrested Tuesday night after leading police on a wild three-freeway chase, ramming two cars, careening through South Coast Plaza’s parking lot and driving against traffic on Imperial Highway without headlights, police said.

Police tackled the driver after he rammed his large panel truck into a tree in an Alton Avenue parking lot in Santa Ana, ending a chase of more than 25 miles.

It began with reports of a truck speeding through quiet Brea neighborhoods and wildly jumping curbs, Brea Police Lt. Mike Messina said.

When it was over, Aaron Eugene Fowler of Covina was being held on suspicion of hit and run, reckless driving, evading arrest and assault with a deadly weapon, Messina said. Fowler, screaming and incoherent when he was wrestled to the asphalt, was being tested for drugs, Messina said.

Several times during the chase, Fowler appeared to swerve toward officers and other drivers, and he twice smacked into other cars, California Highway Patrol Sgt. Steve Nibarger said. No one was injured in the collisions.

“He was extremely erratic and purposeful, like he was intent on doing a lot of damage,” said Nibarger, who was driving one of the CHP cars trailing the truck. “He was screaming and shouting incoherently when we arrested him. He was anything but rational.”

Brea police got calls at 6:50 p.m. reporting a large truck barreling down residential streets and leaping a median, as neighborhood children dove for cover, Messina said. Patrol cars spotted the truck near Imperial Highway and Kraemer Boulevard and followed it as made wild U-turns and, at one point, drove against traffic, Messina said.

The hazardous behavior, and the presence of a police helicopter tracing the truck driver, prompted the officers following the truck to back off and turn off their overhead lights, Messina said. Officers suspected the truck might be stolen, and that the driver might slow down if he thought he was clear of police, he said.

“But the truck wasn’t stolen, he was working, much to the dismay of his boss” at JA Trucking in La Habra, Messina said. Fowler didn’t slow down, raced through red lights and rammed a car at the Rose Drive and Bastanchury Road in Yorba Linda on his way to the Orange Freeway, Messina said.

The listing, top-heavy truck hit speeds of 65 mph as it headed south on a freeway path that brought it to the Baker Street exit of the Costa Mesa Freeway, and then through the city of Costa Mesa and the large parking lot at South Coast Plaza, Nibarger said.

A CHP officer purposely rammed the rear corner of the truck as it barreled westbound on Paularino Avenue, a tactic meant to send the truck off the road, Nibarger said. But the effort failed and left the patrol car’s passenger door badly crumpled, officers at the scene said.

A few miles later, the northbound truck turned off Bristol Street onto Alton Avenue and swerved into the parking lot of an Office Depot, Nibarger said. The truck plowed into a tree, and as Fowler jumped out, he was surrounded by officers with their guns drawn.

“We’re pretty lucky to take him in and nobody getting hurt with a truck that big,” Messina said.