Crime & Safety

Suspect in Police Chase Faces Felony Child-Endangerment Charge

Michael Obryant is accused of evading officers with his girlfriend's 4-year-old son in the car.

The driver who evaded police in a wild high-speed chase on Interstate 5 in North County Friday, with his girlfriend’s little boy in the backseat, was publicly identified Saturday as a 27-year-old Los Angeles man.

Michael Obryant remained jailed Saturday, as CHP officers planned to ask for charges of felony assault with a deadly weapon on a peace officer, felony child endangerment, felony evading, resisting arrest and driving under the influence of marijuana, according to CHP Officer Jim Bettencourt.

Obryant allegedly led officers on a 45-minute chase down and then back up Interstate 5 in North County with his girlfriend’s 4-year-old son in the back seat, and tried to ram an officer’s vehicle, the CHP said.

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The events that led to the arrest began about 2:10 p.m. Friday, when Obryant stopped his 2010 Dodge Caliber sedan in the midst of an argument with his girlfriend on the shoulder of Interstate 5 near Harbor Drive in Oceanside, Bettencourt said.

The woman got out and Obryant allegedly sped away with her child still in the sedan. A passer-by picked her up and called 911 as they tailed the Caliber toward San Diego.

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CHP officers stopped him south of Leucadia Boulevard, according to the CHP, and broke the Caliber’s window with a baton.

But Obryant allegedly drove off with the boy still in the car, Bettencourt said. Officers pursued the vehicles as it left and reentered the freeway several times, avoiding several spike strips, and at some point headed north.

Bettencourt said the fleeing driver tried to ram an officer attempting to perform a “PIT maneuver,” in which the front of a law enforcement vehicle is used to nudge the back of a suspect’s vehicle to make it spin out of control and skid to a halt.

That officer then rejoined the pursuit and performed the maneuver successfully, ending the chase in the vicinity of Carlsbad Boulevard and Highland Drive.

Obryant was arrested, Bettencourt said. No one was injured, he said.

The suspect’s girlfriend was interviewed at the Oceanside CHP office and was released along with her son, Bettencourt said.

Obryant was booked into the Vista Detention Facility and was held Saturday in lieu of $50,000 bail. He is scheduled to be arraigned at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday, according to online jail records.

-City News Service


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