Man Arrested After Car Chase, Standoff

Two suspected car thieves fleeing Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies Thursday dodged into a vacant house in Canyon Country and one surrendered after a five-hour standoff with a SWAT team, the Sheriff’s Department reported.

The other man managed to slip out the back of the house, probably before the area was cordoned off, and eluded capture, Deputy Hal Grant said.

The arrested man was identified as Tony Shane Wilson, 22, of Canoga Park, deputies said.

Axel Koester, a free-lance photographer working for The Times, was detained by deputies who said he had entered the area declared off-limits by the SWAT team. Deputies confiscated Koester’s press pass and released him two hours later.

The incident began at 1:10 p.m. when deputies saw Shane and the other man in a white Lexus traveling without license plates on Camp Plenty Road at Nadal Street and attempted to stop the car, Deputy Rich Erickson said. The driver refused to pull over, and the deputies pursued the car about one-quarter mile to the 27000 block of Camp Plenty Road, where the men left the car while it was still rolling and ran into a house, Erickson said.

When deputies searched the car, which they later learned had been stolen from the San Fernando Valley, they found an empty holster, leading them to believe the men in the house were armed.

The SWAT team surrounded the house and Wilson eventually surrendered at 6:40 p.m. Deputies entered the house at 7:10 p.m., but did not find the other man.

No weapons were recovered, Grant said.

Wilson was being held in lieu of $10,000 bail at the Santa Clarita Valley sheriff’s station on suspicion of felony auto theft and burglary.