Just like every other morning, Ida Wolf woke up and went out to her front porch to get her newspaper around 8 a.m.
But instead of continuing her daily routine, the 92-year-old woman and former Associated Students UCLA employee found police yelling at her to go back inside her home.
Wolf ended up spending the next five hours at a house across the street, because a man suspected of car theft was walking on top of her house and a neighbor’s.
An hours-long standoff that unfolded between the man and the Los Angeles Police Department began with a car chase in Westwood Village and ended with an arrest, attracting a crowd and plenty of media attention.
The man, who has not yet been identified, surrendered after being hit with three or four bean bag rounds, police said. The rounds are small, fabric pillows filled with lead beads that cause muscle spasms but are not supposed to cause long-term trauma.
The LAPD began pursuing the man on a car chase through Westwood at around 8 a.m., said LAPD Officer Cleon Joseph.
The car, a silver Toyota Camry, was confirmed stolen, and the man is a parolee, Joseph said.
The chase lasted about five minutes and ended at the 800 block of Malcolm Avenue, near Le Conte and Hilgard avenues. That’s when he climbed up on the roof of one of the homes, Joseph said.
Wolf has lived in her home behind sorority row for 58 years and worked at the purchasing department for ASUCLA from 1959 to 1979. She said nothing like this has ever happened in this neighborhood.
“Material things at a time like this just don’t mean anything,” Wolf said. “I had no concern for anything inside my home or outside of it. I just wanted everyone to be safe.”
Some students had difficulty getting to campus because of the roads blocked off near Hilgard Avenue, but there have been no official reports of classes being disrupted or cancelled, said Steve Ritea, a UCLA spokesman.
Celso Benavides, 26, is a painter who has been working on Wolf’s home for the past two weeks, and was supposed to finish his job Thursday. He said he could hear the man walking on the roof before police directed Wolf, the painters and the residents of the house next door to evacuate their homes and gather in a neighbor’s house across the street until the incident had cleared.
Benavides said he and his fellow workers felt scared when they saw LAPD officers with their guns drawn on the front lawn.
LAPD had the block surrounded with about 50 officers and had SWAT team and rescue vans on the scene, said West LAPD Lt. Tony Carranza. Police also set a ladder against Wolf’s home to give the man a way to get down.
The man did not have any weapons on him, officers said. LAPD Officer Ed Aragonez said police officers took extra precautions after the suspect verbally threatened officers while he was on the roof and said, “If I could reach my gun, I would shoot all you guys.”
The man’s girlfriend, who was also in the car during the chase, was rescued and arrested by the LAPD earlier in the morning, Carranza said. He said she is only being questioned right now and will likely be released.
All residents on the block were evacuated by police, Joseph said.
The incident drew a crowd and a set of helicopters that hovered over Westwood for most of the morning. Sandra Kielgass, who has lived in the neighborhood for 24 years, said she had just moved her car on the street and was talking to a friend on the phone when the silver Toyota Camry sped by ““ just missing the car she was sitting in ““ with about nine police cars in pursuit.
“He should have given up a long time ago,” said Kielgass, who spent most of the morning watching the incident with her dog, Toby.
Police had been talking with the man and giving him some time to think throughout the morning, but Joseph said safety was their first priority.
LAPD will not release the name of the man at this time. He was wearing a black or gray sweatshirt, pants and a beanie. The man is in his 30s and a resident of West Los Angeles, Carranza said. He is currently being held at Van Nuys jail.
He might have been under the influence of narcotics, he said.
With reports by Fiona Kirby, Bruin contributor.