Police chase suspect through Long Beach

Man crashed into barricade in attempt to flee

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In a scene straight out of a Hollywood movie, Long Beach police were involved in a car chase that had officers pursuing a suspect all the way from the city's Westholme neighborhood to Point Lookout. The incident left one police officer injured after the suspect attempted to crash through a barricade.

On Sunday, July 27, Long Beach police officers arrested two men after they attempted to steal copper pipes from a construction site on West Bay Street, but not before one of the suspects fled the scene, initiating the chase with the police, and another tried to make a getaway in a taxi.

LBPD spokesman Lt. Mark Stark said that police received a call late Sunday night from a resident who saw people walking around with flashlights at a house next door, and reported that there was a truck parked outside without plates — even though the home was under construction and uninhabited. Officers arrived at the home, and while interviewing the neighbor, a man ran out from behind the house, jumped in a car and sped away, Stark said.

The suspect who fled the scene, Jose Saravia-Jimenez, was a construction worker at the home, Stark said. Saravia-Jimenez and his accomplice, Hesmin Javier Bueso Molina, came from Huntington that night with the intention of stealing copper pipes, according to Stark. Before arriving at the house, Stark said that they stopped by the Recreation Center to remove the plates from their truck.

Police officers pursued Saravia-Jimenez, but after he rammed his car into a police cruiser, they backed off, Stark said.

As he drove into Point Lookout, seemingly lost, an unmarked police car continued to follow, unbeknownst to Saravia-Jimenez, Stark said. When Saravia-Jimenez reached the end of Lido Boulevard, at Mineola Avenue, and tried to turn around, police blocked him in. However, Stark said that he attempted to drive through the barricade, and when that proved unsuccessful, Saravia-Jimenez was finally arrested by Long Beach police officer Darren Brennan.

During the chase, one officer suffered whiplash from the collision with Saravia-Jimenez, and was taken to a local hospital for treatment. Along with Brennan, officers Brian Wells, Raymond Kenahan, Joshau Trotta, and John Leddy were also involved in the chase and arrest.

While police were chasing Saravia-Jimenez, Molina also fled the scene and walked to a taxi stand by the Long Island Rail Road station in an attempt to take a taxi home. Police alerted the taxi operators that the suspect might head there, and when Molina arrived, he was arrested and charged with criminal trespassing and petit larceny. Saravia-Jimenez was arrested and charged with 55 moving violations, including DWI, reckless driving and fleeing an officer in a motor vehicle, as well as petit larceny and criminal trespassing.