Thunder Runners; Highway Hiker; Coppa Choppa, And Sideshow Olé

After a deceptively quiet start to the evening, Friday night devolved into a Code Three blur of sirens, apparitions, and screeching tires as random incidents of criminal intent and psychotic breaks turned the evening into a mélange of breakneck events.

By now, you’ve no doubt caught up with us regarding that pursuit from Pittsburg through downtown Lafayette – ending behind a dumpster at the Big O tire store on Mount Diablo Boulevard – and some automotive shenanigans and fisticuffs in Walnut Creek. But that, apparently, was just the start of things as we moved into early Saturday morning with no sign of a letup.

A little after things began to calm down in Lafayette, witnesses reported seeing a man walking on flyover to Highway 24 and he made our photographer really, really edgy as cars whizzed by. Our man was unable to determine if the man was stranded – though there was no car nearby – or had merely gotten confused, crossed several lanes of traffic and ended up in a vulnerable spot. Apparently a CHP cruiser, that agency busy with other similar incidents Saturday morning, raced up and offered him a ride off the freeway.

Then Danville PD got into the act, falling in behind a car with several folks aboard making a break for the 680/24 escape route and making it as far as Orinda before it was darted and stopped around 3:30 a.m.

Through it all, or for the duration of the Lafayette incident at least, the sheriff’s handsome black and gold STARR3 provided aerial support and an unblinking light helpful to officers probing dark places on the ground. All of the East Bay law enforcement and medical rotorcraft have been doing journeyman’s work in a variety of roles of late.