Bathroom barricade man, 27, arrested

LA CA—ADA FLINTRIDGE -- The Crescenta Valley Sheriff's Department will file charges today against a 27-year-old Los Angeles man who led police on a high-speed pursuit, then barricaded himself in a Foothill Boulevard business' restroom, police said.

Nathaniel Rivera was arrested Tuesday evening on suspicion of auto theft, possession of a firearm as a parolee and reasonable cause robbery, just 15 minutes after he initially led police on a high-speed pursuit on the freeway, Crescenta Valley Sheriff's Sgt. Don Hudalla said. The reasonable cause robbery accusation is based on the officers' suspicion that items found in the car Rivera was driving were going to be used to commit a robbery or had been used in a robbery, police said. Hudalla declined to say what those items were.

Sheriff's deputies patrolling the Foothill area just before 6 p.m. Tuesday initially suspected Rivera of auto theft after arbitrarily running his license plate, and finding the Infiniti G35 he was driving was reported stolen out of Pasadena, Hudalla said.

Rivera entered the Foothill (210) Freeway at which point police activated their sirens to pull him over. Rivera waited about a half-mile before taking off at high speeds to evade them, Hudalla said.

"We could not keep up with him at 90 mph," he said.

After crashing into another vehicle just before the Angeles Highway exit, Rivera ran up and over the freeway embankment and onto Foothill Boulevard, where he led police on a foot pursuit, Hudalla said.

"A deputy saw him on the sidewalk by Los Gringos [Locos Restaurant]," Hudalla said. "He was trying to fit into the crowd, but he was breathing heavily and sweating profusely."

Rivera ran across the street and into the La Cañada Trader Joe's, looking for a rear exit, Hudalla said. When he could not find one, he locked himself in the market's bathroom.

Rivera opened the door within minutes and police arrested him -- about 15 minutes after the incident began. Police recovered drugs and a loaded hand gun from the Infinity, Hudalla said.