Moment female driver races BMW into sea off Venice Beach during high-speed police chase, leaving behind 2 dogs
A wild high-speed police chase ended with a female driver racing her BMW onto a popular Los Angeles beach and into the Pacific Ocean — with her then trying to swim away, leaving behind two dogs.
Footage shows the silver X3 speeding past the famous Venice Beach pier crowded with people around 11:20 p.m. Saturday and plowing straight into the surf, spraying a wall of water high into the air.
“All of a sudden, Out of nowhere you just hear screeching tires and ‘Boom!'” witness Yerucham Klein told KCAL. “I mean, it was just crazy. We’re like, ‘What just happened? What’s going on?'”
The driver – described only as a woman in her 20s who raced off when officers tried to pull her over for speeding — managed to scramble out of the SUV and swim further out to sea.
Dozens of gawkers looked on from the pier and the beach as the woman trod water until a life preserver was tossed to her and she was hoisted onto a Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department boat.
“They are trying to save you!” one onlooker was quoted by Westside Current as saying. “Just let them help you.”
Meanwhile, first responders rescued one of the driver’s two pet Boston terriers from her sinking BMW. The other was able to escape the vehicle on its own. Neither was harmed.
A video showed a uniformed officer carrying a black pup under his arm.
Before hitting the beach, the driver had been clocked doing at least 78mph as she raced away from cops, who estimated that she went over 100 mph at times, the California Highway Patrol said.
The drenched motorist was later taken into custody and transported to a hospital, while her pooches were placed in the care of animal control, the reports said.
