LOS ANGELES (AP) — An assault suspect led Los Angeles police on
a chase in a luxury Bentley sedan for more than three hours before
fatally shooting himself in the head early Tuesday as he sat in the car
surrounded by armed officers, police said.

The man, whose identity was not immediately released, died after he was taken to a hospital in Burbank, Sgt. Ernest Fisher said.

The
low-speed pursuit covered several Southern California freeways Monday
night before the man came to a stop on a street near Universal Studios
very close to where the chase began.

About 90 minutes later,
television news video showed three large armored vehicles surround the
car and SWAT team members approach it with guns drawn. They broke the
white sedan’s passenger window and opened the door, but the man had
already shot himself.

He was whisked away in an ambulance.

Police
said the man was suspected of assault with a deadly weapon on his
girlfriend. They also suspected from the start of the chase that he was
armed.

Police had received a call at 3:30 p.m. Monday that a man
had threatened his girlfriend with a gun and may be suicidal, Lt. Greg
Doyle told KTLA-TV.

The chase began shortly before 8 p.m. when officers responded to a report that the suspect had returned to the area, Doyle said.

Driving
less than 40 mph, the man behind the wheel of the $100,000-plus car
began leading officers southbound on U.S. 101 through Hollywood, and
kept heading south on different freeways nearly to the coast, then
headed back north before stopping on Lankershim Boulevard near a
well-lit Toyota dealership. An unidentified dark-haired woman
approached the car and appeared to attempt to talk to the driver.

As
police waved her away, the trunk popped open, and police cars quickly
lined up behind it; officers then trained their weapons on the car from
behind the open doors of more than a dozen squad cars.

News helicopters hovered over the scene, and authorities kept back a crowd of photographers and gawkers.

The
lavish car and the chase’s Hollywood-area origins spurred speculation
that the suspect might be someone prominent, but police dispelled that.

“He’s not a celebrity, just someone who had a $100,000 Bentley,” Doyle said.