A 15-year-old was put in handcuffs Thursday afternoon after speeding through a South Los Angeles park, tearing up grass and striking signposts, during a police pursuit that ended with a crash.
The erratic chase wound through surface streets as the driver of a silver Nissan Altima blew through red lights, wove in and out of traffic, drove the wrong direction on several streets and sped by a group of schoolchildren.
LA County sheriff's deputies confirmed to NBC4 the driver was a 15-year-old girl.
The teen drove at high speeds through South LA, barely avoiding head-on crashes with at least one other car and nearly striking a semi-truck. She then drove off the road and onto the grass of the Earvin Magic Johnson Recreation Area, a park surrounded by several elementary and high schools.
A group of men playing dominoes in the park said they got up and scrambled for cover.
"She come back over here, hit that curb, went around this tree, spins around, went back around here, spins around in the dirt and then shot that way back by the school again," witness Michael McGee said. "We were just trying to find some coverage just in case she came this way."
The car tore up dirt and grass in the park as it sped through the grounds, eventually going back onto surface streets, only to return to the park and ram signposts as deputies followed behind.
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"She left and went out, and then we said, 'Let's get back to dominoes," Tony Tate said. "Next thing you know, 'Wait! Hey, hey.' We all went back behind the tree."
The driver then appeared to stop outside a schoolyard several times before flying through school zones and then winding through a strip mall parking lot.
"She was driving, man, whoever was driving that car can handle that car," witness Otis McKinney said.
The girl then drove around a bend at such a high rate of speed that she appeared to lose control of the car and veered off to the side of the road, nearly hitting an oncoming car and swerving toward to curb.
The teen drove up the curb and onto the sidewalk, and slid against what appeared to be a fence before the car stopped in the middle of the road near Imperial Highway and Central Avenue.
Deputies swarmed the Nissan as the girl stuck her hands out of the window, eventually getting out and walking toward them with her hands behind her head.
Aerial video showed a slew of patrol cars filling both sides of the street as deputies took her into custody.
The erratic chase was the Los Angeles area's third major reported police pursuit of the day.
Conan Nolan contributed to this report.
