Cypress Man Injured in Chase

A Cypress man fleeing police was seriously injured Monday after his vehicle struck two parked cars, authorities said.

Paul Hernandez, 23, was charged with assault and battery and taken to UCI Medical Center in Orange for treatment of head injuries, said Denise Davis, a spokeswoman for the Cypress Police Dept.

Davis said the incident began about 9:30 a.m. when Hernandez entered a local bank and hit his 20-year-old girlfriend, who was doing business there.

Davis said the woman, whose name was not released, was driven by a friend to the Cypress police station, where she told investigators that her boyfriend had assaulted her and was waiting outside. When an officer went out to check, Davis said, Hernandez took off eastbound on Orange Street in his 1984 maroon Honda Civic, precipitating the chase.

The pursuit ended a short time later at Orange and Peach avenues when the car, traveling at high speed, sideswiped a parked truck, pushing it onto a lawn, then careened across three lanes of traffic into a parked car.

Hernandez was the only one injured, authorities said.