Police in Murietta arrested a 28-year-old man this weekend who was wanted on suspicion of assaulting an Orange County sheriff’s deputy, authorities announced.
Officers received an alert from a Flock Safety camera around 11:30 p.m. on Saturday, June 6 from a Walmart parking lot at 41200 Murrieta Hot Springs Road regarding a man suspected of assaulting the deputy, according to Murrieta police. The man was also wanted on a number of other felony warrants.
As police approached, the vehicle sped off and continued driving away after officers turned on their sirens and emergency lights, police said in a news release.
The chase ended around Hayes Avenue and De Luz Road, where the driver lost control and hit a dirt embankment, police said. At that point, the man ran from the vehicle into thick brush.
Officers established a perimeter, searched the area and eventually arrested the man without incident.
It was not immediately clear from the news release when or where the assault on the deputy took place, or what it or the other warrants involved. A spokesperson for the Orange County Sheriff’s Department had no immediate comment when contacted on Sunday.
Murrieta, like cities across Southern California and the country, uses automated license plate reader cameras from Flock Safety, which send alerts to law enforcement when stolen vehicles or wanted suspects are detected.
The technology has come under fire as communities worry about a potential for mass police surveillance and fears that Flock data may be shared with federal immigration officials.