A high speed chase involving a teacher wanted for lewd acts with a child ended when the teacher's truck went airborne slamming into a building.
The suspect is physical education teacher Kip Arnold. The Los Angeles Unified School District teacher was wanted on allegations of committing lewd acts with a minor, who is a former student. Police tried to question him in his car near his Lakewood, California home.
"They stopped the car, made contact with him at the window of the car, and he said 'I know why you're here' and put the car in drive and took off," says Lt. Ty Henshaw of the Bell Police Dept.
Arnold headed west, toward the Pacific, with police in pursuit.
A patrol car got close enough to bump the pickup, forcing it to slam into a tractor trailer.
The chase appeared to be over, but he was able to get the truck unstuck and fled once again.
A short time later, the suspect took a turn off the highway, and suddenly swerved off the road and went airborne.
The truck flew over the embankment and crashed into a tree below. Rescue crews worked about an hour to free Arnold, who was then taken to a nearby hospital.
"He seemed pretty stable for the type of incident that took place,” Capt. Phil Schneider of the L.A. County Fire Dept.
The L.A. School district is cooperating with investigators on the lewd acts case.
