Fleeing man rams patrol cars before arrest

A longhaired man in a Volkswagen van rammed three patrol cars as he fled through Morgan Hill early Tuesday morning before he was pepper sprayed and arrested, according to the California Highway Patrol.

A CHP officer spotted the driver of the 1983 Volkswagen van, later identified as 46-year-old Alex Larsen, heading north on U.S. Highway 101 at Tennant Avenue early Tuesday morning.

The van was swerving over all lanes of traffic, nearly hitting other vehicles on the road, so the officer tried to pull the vehicle over, CHP officials said.

Larsen wouldn’t pull over and continued north on the highway while swerving across traffic lanes with the CHP officer in pursuit, according to the CHP.

He drove past Morgan Hill and turned around at Bailey Avenue, north of Coyote, and headed back south on Highway 101. He rammed a CHP patrol car as he sped back toward Morgan Hill, CHP officials said.

After following Larsen off of the highway and onto city streets, a CHP officer forced the van to swerve to the side by getting ahead of Larsen and bumping the front of the van with the patrol car.

Morgan Hill police arrived and boxed in the van with their patrol cars on Butterfield Boulevard just south of Cochrane Road, according to the CHP.

Larsen tried to escape from the blockade, allegedly ramming two Morgan Hill patrol cars with the van.

As the officers tried to take him into custody, he allegedly continued resisting arrest and was pepper sprayed, CHP officials said.

At 1:33 a.m., he was arrested and booked into jail on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon, recklessly evading police, driving the wrong way, resisting arrest and driving under the influence of drugs, according to the CHP.