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Man Tries To Kill Himself, Female Passenger By Driving Off Mountain Road
Chantry Flats (Photo by California CPA via the LAist Featured Photos pool)
A man barricaded himself in a home after trying to kill himself and a woman by attempting to drive off of a mountain road up in the Angeles National Forest last night.
The initial call came in as a traffic accident along Chantry Flats Road in Arcadia, but when police arrived they found out it was more complicated than that. A vehicle had crashed right into a guardrail. The driver had fled, but an uninjured woman was still at the scene, according to City News Service.
Police said their investigation found that Patrick Anthony Gonzalez, 21, had attempted to kill himself and the woman by driving over the side of the road. They said that Gonzalez and the woman had—at least previously—been in some sort of relationship.
Police looked for Gonzalez but they couldn't find him. A few hours later they got another call that a man had broken into a home near the Santa Anita Dam and barricaded himself inside. It turned out to be Gonzalez.
The residents of the home were able to get out, but they noted that there a loaded firearm inside the home. A SWAT team with the county sheriff's department responded and tried to coax Gonzalez out. He refused to come out for several hours, so the SWAT team finally entered and arrested him. He never brandished the loaded gun.
He was hospitalized for some injuries he suffered in the crash and trying to flee.
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