Chase ends in crash, arrest in South Pasadena

From Nathan McIntire and Frank Girardot, Staff Writers

SOUTH PASADENA - A man involved in a high speed car chase was arrested after his car hit a curb, flew into the air and crashed onto the roof of a home near Orange Grove Avenue and Columbia Street.
Estaban Pelacos was arrested by the Los Angeles Police Department after he was chased to South Pasadena from Panorama City. The chase ensued after Pelacos failed to pull over during a traffic stop, South Pasadena Police Sgt. Craig Cooper said.
Pelacos sustained a spinal fracture when his car hit a curb, careened through brush and landed on the roof of a home, Cooper said.
"He was doing speeds in excess of 70 on Orange Grove," Cooper said. "He lost control of the vehicle, he impacted a curb on a side street, and then he was airborne and landed on the roof and in some brush of a resident."
Pelacos was taken to Huntington Memorial Hospital, Cooper said. No one was home when the car hit the roof of the house, Cooper said.
Cooper said police had trouble arresting Pelacos because of where his vehicle ended up.
"Because of the level of the car being off the ground and hanging off the roof, it was a little challenging getting in there," Cooper said.
Los Angeles police tried to pull Pelacos' vehicle over just before midnight Thursday because it was registered to another man who is a suspect in a homicide, LAPD officer Gregory Baek said.
"They were serving a search warrant for a possible homicide suspect and the suspect fled from the location in a vehicle," Baek said. "Officers followed that suspect and then the suspect kept fleeing."
Police discovered Pelacos was not the man they were looking for but he was arrested anyway because he had a felony warrant out for his arrest and was carrying a handgun, Cooper said.
Pelacos is being held without bail, according to sheriff's booking records.
After the crash and arrest, a tow truck moving the vehicle ruptured a gas line at about 1:15 a.m. and several homes were evacuated. There was no fire but more firefighters were called out as a precaution, authorities said.