A harrowing car chase in Los Angeles on Friday night ended with the death of Brian Newt Beaird, 51, the driver of a silver Chevy C6 Corvette. According to U-T San Diego, the police pursuit occurred at 9:30 p.m. when Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies tried to stop Beaird for reckless driving.
According to authorities, run flat tires allowed the Corvette to continue driving despite the spike strips on the road. The car chase escalated into a high-speed pursuit and Beaird did not stop until his silver Corvette t-boned into the side of a Nissan Maxima.
LAPD Lt. Neiman said there was "great concern that he was going to hurt someone severely." The whole incident was broadcast live by KTLA-TV, which showed Brian Newt Beaird emerge from the Corvette, which was wedged between two poles on the sidewalk, and attempt to flee on foot.
Amid the incident, an LAPD officer fired a bean bag warning round at Beaird in an attempt of a nonlethal arrest. However, another officer mistook the fire as a live round and responded by firing his gun at Beaird. The officer apparently hit their mark. Cameras pointed at Beaird as he clutched at his stomach and fell to the ground. Eventually, Brian Newt Beaird was pronounced dead at California Hospital Medical Center at 11:15 p.m. To add more to the tragedy, the wrongly killed Brian Newt Beaird actually suffered from paranoid schizophrenia, a mental illness that would quite naturally cause him to flee from authority.
"Policy dictates that the officer using the non-lethal bean bag shotgun notify other officers so they don't think lethal force is being used," LAPD Cmdr. Alexander Smith told 10news.
Brian Newt Beaird was a disabled military veteran and a paranoid schizophrenic. “We’re pretty angry. I mean, there didn’t seem that there was justification for what happened,” said Beaird’s brother John following the emotional loss.
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