An 18-year-old man has been charged with driving a stolen vehicle, speeding at police officers on foot and nearly hitting them as he got away.
Adrian Coates was arraigned Tuesday on two felonies: unlawful taking of a vehicle and aggravated assault on a peace officer, according to the Orange County District Attorney's office (OCDA), which adds a conviction could send the Huntington Beach teen to state prison for five years and eight months.
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A Huntington Beach Police officer tried to pull him over a 1996 Honda Accord around 2:50 a.m. Sunday for a vehicle code violation, according to Surf City Officer Jennifer Marlatt.
However, the Accord sped off west on Edinger Avenue, Marlatt told City News Service, adding that pursuing officers checked the license plate and discovered the car was
stolen.
The driver would not stop, blowing through two signs and continuing south toward Davenport Drive, west on Davenport and then north on Baruna Street to Nalu Circle, where the Accord wound up pinned in at the end of the cul-de-sac, Marlatt said.
As cops got out of their patrol cars and gave commands to the three men in the stolen car, the driver punched the gas and drove toward the officers, alleged Marlatt, who reported the officers managed to both get out of the way and get off some shots at the car, hitting it several times.
The driver kept going, but an Orange County sheriff's helicopter crew spotted a 1996 Honda Accord near Edgewater Lane and Courtney Drive just after 4 a.m., Marlatt said. Coates, who was identified as the driver and placed under arrest, according to Lt. Jeff Hallock, the Orange County sheriff's spokesman.
Neither Coates nor the officers were hurt, authorities said.
In filing its charges against Coates, the OCDA alleges he nearly hit the cops with the Accord. Held on $50,000 bail, he has a pre-trial hearing set for May 6 in Westminster.
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OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.