DUI Hit and Run Suspect Commandeers CHP Car

A hit-and-run suspect briefly commandeered a California Highway Patrol vehicle and escaped before being re-captured, authorities said today.

The suspect, 23-year-old John Larry Perryman III, of San Bernardino, had originally been detained for leaving the scene of a four-vehicle collision he caused on the eastbound lanes of the Riverside (91) Freeway in Fullerton at 4:30 p.m. Friday, a California Highway Patrol media release said.

The suspect fled on foot and was found on Magnolia Avenue, where he was handcuffed and placed in the rear of a Westminster CHP patrol vehicle, in which he was transferred back to the scene of the collision, the release said.

With the officers out of the vehicle and completing their investigation, the suspect was able to climb into the front of the patrol car and drive it away the release said.

The vehicle’s location was tracked through its GPS to Whittier, where the suspect abandoned the vehicle and fled on foot.

He was found at 6:20 p.m., the release said, and now faces charges of DUI, hit-and-run, resisting arrest, evading and theft of a vehicle.

• City News Service

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