RIVERSIDE (AP) — A woman who authorities said led police on a pursuit along a Southern California interstate early Saturday and then fled into an apartment where she held her grandmother and baby at knifepoint has been taken into custody.
Brianna A. Duru, 26, dropped the knife she was carrying after a three-and-a-half hour standoff with officers and a hostage negotiator, The Press-Enterprise reported, citing police.
She is being held on suspicion of vehicle theft, evading, assault with a deadly weapon and other charges, according to the California Highway Patrol.
No one was injured in the standoff.
The ordeal began about 12:30 a.m. at a busy commercial intersection in Riverside, about 55 miles (89 kilometers) west of downtown Los Angeles. According to police, a woman was spotted threatening people with what witnesses described as a metal spear.
The woman jumped into the passenger side of a Riverside Transit Agency truck while the driver was outside his vehicle, police said. The driver grabbed her but she fended him off with the metal object.
A Riverside officer tried to pull the woman out of the truck but she drove off, injuring the officer as she fled, investigators said.
About an hour later, Duru was located driving the white pickup truck on California State Route 91, authorities said. CHP officers followed her in patrol cars and a helicopter as she turned onto Interstate 215 and later crashed into an apartment complex gate.
According to authorities, Duru then fled into an apartment unit where she held her grandmother and baby hostage.
Duru eventually let her grandmother leave but kept her baby at knifepoint until she dropped the weapon and was taken into custody, police said. Neither the grandmother nor her baby was injured in the standoff.