California

After Chaotic Freeway Pursuit, Woman Storms Into a Diamond Bar Home

The driver was traveling at speeds exceeding 130 mph before colliding with multiple other vehicles

Brenda Duchemin was hosting a Buddhist meeting in her Diamond Bar home Wednesday evening when her barking dog alerted her to a frantic stranger who showed up at her door asking for help.

The woman wearing a tank top and shorts said she had been in a car crash on the nearby 57 Freeway in the Orange County community and her boyfriend needed help.

"This woman came running at me and grabs a hold of me," Duchemin said. "She says, 'You gotta help me! You gotta help me!

"She had a lot of adrenaline. She was extremely hyper."

In fact, the woman had been part of several car crashes on the freeway during a high-speed pursuit through two counties that eventually came to a crashing halt on the 57 Freeway in Diamond Bar. Newschopper4 Bravo was over the chase around 7:50 p.m. on the 57 Freeway northbound, coming out of Orange County. With the driver traveling at speeds well over 100 mph, the pursuit quickly traveled into Los Angeles County and collided with multiple other vehicles on the 57 Freeway in Diamond Bar.

A man and the woman exited the damaged silver sedan after a crash that involved at least three vehicles. The man immediately raised his hands and surrendered, even before authorities arrived.

The woman, however, took off running on the shoulder of the freeway and into a nearby neighborhood. She appeared to attempt to enter multiple homes without success.

She even encountered a man standing by his car in a driveway. As the woman continued to run, she jumped over a fence and ran through a dry wash area behind a row of homes.

Then, she crawled through some bushes and jumped into the back yard of a home in the 3400 block of Crooked Creek Drive in Diamond Bar.

A law enforcement officer entered the same back yard seconds later, with the running woman having made her way into Duchemin's home through a sliding door. Ducehmin said the woman on the run closed the sliding glass door behind her, as she begged for help.

"Everyone was fine," said Duchemin. "We felt like we were protected because it was a Buddhist meeting."

Duchemin said the CHP officer, who had walked into the back yard looking for the woman, mouthed words to her and determined that the woman had just stormed into the residence uninvited. After a few minutes, the officer led the woman out of the residence in handcuffs.

"Everyone was fine," said Duchemin. "We felt like we were protected because it was a Buddhist meeting."

The woman appeared to be the driver of the vehicle, but it was unclear what prompted the chase or whether the man who also exited the vehicle was arrested or cited.

NBCLA's Jonathan Lloyd contributed to this report.

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