This is an archival story that predates current editorial management.
This archival content was written, edited, and published prior to LAist's acquisition by its current owner, Southern California Public Radio ("SCPR"). Content, such as language choice and subject matter, in archival articles therefore may not align with SCPR's current editorial standards. To learn more about those standards and why we make this distinction, please click here.
A man suspected of being pretty high fled the custody of the CHP last night. A taser couldn't stop him: he broke through the glass door of the CHP station in Altadena and ended up hijacking the car of a family that drove by.The CHP had arrested 28-year-old Luis Octavio Cortes at the scene of a crash in Altadena that night, City News Service reported. An investigator was about to test him for drugs, and that's when everything went wrong.
"They had to uncuff him so that they could do their tests. When they uncuffed him, he went berserk," CHP Officer Ed Jacobs told CNS.
Officers tried to tase him, but Cortes managed to yank the taser gun barbs out from his skin. He broke through the station's glass front door and ran into the street where he hijacked a car with a woman, her pregnant daughter and grandchild inside. Cortes pulled the driver out of the seat and started driving on the 210 Freeway with her daughter and grandchild in the back. The pregnant woman called 9-1-1 from the backseat so that CHP could tail him.
Eventually Cortes pulled off the freeway and ran inside a nearby house. It's not clear if he knew the people inside the house, but at that point—just after 8:30pm—Cortes finally surrendered, CNS reported. One of the CHP officers who tangled with him at the station was hospitalized with minor injuries and released.
