Extensive Police Pursuit From San Francisco To Martinez; One Detained, EOD Team Summoned

A sizable police pursuit of a subject believed to have explosives or an explosive device in his possession left San Francisco and blazed into Contra Costa County Sunday, ending on Imhoff Road near Martinez with a person in custody and explosives experts summoned to check the car.

San Francisco police responded to Saints Peter and Paul Church in SF after a man allegedly assaulted a parishioner, and subsequently to the 600 block of Filbert Street on a report of an assault at approximately 5:52 p.m. Police said they located a suspect who fled in a BMW when officers tried to question him, the man allegedly throwing a suspected pipe bomb out of the car window at officers with the pursuit continuing onto the freeway – where California Highway Patrol units took over.

Several dozen NEWS24/680 readers on Highway 24 at the time of the chase wrote or called to report as the 2008 BMW flashed past at speed – with approximately a dozen police cars from various jurisdictions in pursuit.

A California Highway Patrol helicopter monitored the chase as it sped deeper into the county, running east on Highway 24 before turning north on Pleasant Hill Road.

Several attempts were reportedly made to spin out or spike the vehicle but it eventually made it to the Chilpancingo, Pacheco Boulevard and eventually onto Imhoff… where it crashed at Waterbird Way, the driver taken into custody.

Bomb squad technicians rolled in a robotic arm to pick through the car remotely and reportedly found “devices” in the suspect’s vehicle, along with some damage to some of the CHP units – purportedly by the explosive devices on the San Francisco end of the pursuit.