Last Updated on October 15, 2018 by CCAR Staff
RIVERSIDE — Three men in a sedan led officers on a high-speed, wrong-way chase with their headlights off from Corona to Riverside and ended up crashing into a bus stop early Sunday, police said.
The chase began at about 11:20 p.m. Saturday near the intersection of McKinley Street and Sampson Avenue in Corona when a patrol officer noticed a suspicious vehicle with three men inside parked behind a tractor trailer.
The driver of the vehicle sped off upon seeing the officer approach, entered the westbound Riverside (91) Freeway going the wrong way and drove on the shoulder at over 70 miles an hour with his headlights off, the Riverside City Police Department said.
The chase was deemed too risky and the pursuing ground units backed off, though a RPD helicopter continued to track the suspects from overhead.
The chopper illuminated the suspect vehicle with a high-intensity searchlight as it continued on the 91 in order to help prevent a head-on crash with passing motorists, police said.
The suspect driver eventually exited the freeway via the westbound on- ramp at Pierce Street and nearly collided with other vehicles as he blew through several red lights along Magnolia Avenue, according to police.
At the Tyler Street intersection, in front of the Galleria at Tyler, the suspect driver swerved to avoid a motorist and nearly slammed into a Riverside Transit Agency bus as his vehicle spun out, police said.
Instead, the suspect vehicle crashed into an unoccupied bus stop and one of its passengers bolted out on foot into a nearby Forever 21 parking lot, where he subsequently surrendered and was arrested, according to police. The remaining two suspects who were in the vehicle also were arrested.
The driver was identified as Maximino Penaloza, 19, and charged with at least one felony count of evading arrest, said Corona Police Sgt. Chad Fountain. He said a passenger, 18-year-old Guillermo Serrato, faces at least one drug-related charge and the other, 19-year-old Christopher Martinez, was cited for public intoxication.
All the suspects are Corona residents.
Press-Enterprise staff writer Eric Licas contributed to this story.
