The dangerous chase ended without anyone getting hurt, thankfully. And the road closure ended a few hours after the crash. But the story behind this story is something else; it turned into something very personal.
A 25-year-old stolen car suspect was taken into custody after flipping a Honda Prelude on the Willow Pass off-ramp of I-680 following a wild high-speed police chase that began around 8:30 a.m.
"The pursuit reached speeds of approximately up to 100 miles per hour on the freeway," CHP Sgt. Joe Johnson said. "The individual tried to go the wrong way a couple times on the freeway. We were able to intercept the individual and get him off the freeway on the Pacheco, Pleasant Hill area."
It began on Interstate 80 in Richmond during the Thursday morning commute. A CHP cruiser was damaged when an officer tried to do a "pit maneuver" to try and stop the car, which failed.
"We tried to get this individual before he crashed, but sometimes it doesn't happen like that," Sgt. Johnson said.
The CHP says the suspect, a wanted parolee, was armed with a gun.
"We were just coming down here to see if anything was salvageable," Kurt Johnson said.
The Honda was stolen from Kurt's son's driveway in Walnut Creek. Ironically, Kurt just retired from the CHP
"Wow, we've had this car for so long, it's gone through the whole family," he said. "My youngest son had it in LA, it got stolen down there and recovered. We just had it as a spare, we were getting ready to donate it."
Kurt may now donate the car to a salvage yard.
The suspect suffered minor injuries. He faces multiple charges. It all began Thursday morning when he was spotted driving that stolen car, solo, in a carpool lane.
