A 68-year-old Los Angeles man was arrested on March 4 and booked for assault with a deadly weapon with a vehicle on a police officer after leading officers on a pursuit in the West Los Angeles area.

Around 4:45 a.m., patrol officers from the Los Angeles Police Department’s Pacific Division observed the suspect, Michael Lasky, allegedly driving erratically. After a short pursuit, Lasky made a U-turn and attempted to ram the police cars. One of the supervisors monitoring the pursuit conducted a Precision Immobilization (PIT) maneuver, which involves ramming the suspect’s vehicle from behind and forcing him to lose control. The maneuver successfully disabled Lasky’s car, which came to a stop at Elenda and Arizona Avenues in Culver City.

Lasky was ordered by the officers at scene to get out of his car, but he refused.  A plan was formulated to remove Lasky from the vehicle, and the officers broke out the suspect’s driver and front passenger side windows.  Lasky allegedly continued to ignore the officers’ demands and remained inside the car, so the officers deployed a TASER unit multiple times, which is designed to incapacitate a suspect.  An additional officer also shot Lasky twice with a gun that fires non-lethal, bean bag rounds. Throughout the struggle, Lasky was allegedly ordering his dog, a full-grown pit bull mix, to attack the officers.

Lasky was eventually wrestled from the vehicle, and was taken by ambulance to the hospital for injuries sustained during the incident. Lasky reportedly suffered orbital fractures and two broken ribs during the altercation with police.  He was later booked for assault with a deadly weapon with a vehicle on a police officer. The dog was impounded by Animal Control and sent to an animal shelter. Detectives from the LAPD’s West Traffic Division are handling the assault investigation, and personnel from LAPD’s Force Investigation Division will conduct the investigation into the law enforcement-related injury.

Police are investigating whether Lasky was under the influence, and a motive for the incident has not been established.