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Los Angeles, California...

with 13 million people...

and over 1,000 emergencies a day...

it's often referred to

as the local news capital of the world.

Video journalists have captured an unbelievable catalogue of events.

To see what our members had to endure is very difficult.

This is almost like a movie. It's hard to believe this was real.

With our first-on-scene heroes' perspectives,

this is an insight into their most thrilling moments.

In this episode,

an armed and dangerous driver cannot be stopped.

He doesn't give himself up.

And a tense standoff between police and a store robber.

This woman has one priority, and it isn't what the police want.

Rescuers risk everything

in an attempt to save an exhausted man.

And police are stunned by this robber's weapon of choice.

It's 1:55 a.m. in Anaheim,

the home of Disneyland, just outside of Los Angeles,

and an unusual pursuit is underway.

The suspect isn't driving a car, a minivan or even a truck.

Things are about to get crazy.

Every pursuit that officers get in is different in one way or another.

This pursuit is unique because it involves a fire truck.

It is not easy to drive a fire engine in.

In fact, it almost looks like flying a plane up there.

How on earth does someone get behind the wheel of a fire truck

and actually know how to drive it?

Driving a fire truck is no easy feat,

and with no training or experience, this pursuit could be fatal.

I get excited when these calls come out because it's a moneymaker.

The news loves these stories.

With the California Highway Patrol right on its tail,

the suspect slows things right down.

The police will be thinking about how they can stop this pursuit.

The problem is, they don't know who this guy is,

what he's capable of,

and he's behind the wheel of a stolen fire truck.

I don't know why,

but when the pursuits start happening,

the public loves to come out and get involved.

This random good Samaritan

comes out and stands in front of the fire truck.

Wow. How dangerous is that?

Well, it got quite scary there

when you see the guy in the truck actually reversing

and the police cars were just scattering.

The police officers must've been thinking, "Holy moly.

What is going on here? What's he doing?"

The situation escalates.

Police now have a reckless civilian making a dangerous chase even worse.

What is happening?

Why is this guy standing in front of this fire truck?

Is this guy gonna get run over?

In a crazy, unexpected turn of events,

the civilian starts walking towards the fire truck

and incredibly, it starts reversing.

Maybe he knew the guy. Maybe the guy was a friend of his,

and he tried to help him.

It appears that the suspect and the person to stop the pursuit

may have known each other.

It looked like the man that jumped in front of the ladder truck

was...successful in getting the guy to slow down

and decide to open the door.

The suspect climbs out of the truck,

crawls over to police and surrenders.

This guy single-handedly stopped the pursuit

by standing in front of that fire truck.

Oh, my God, he did it.

It's shocking that somebody would steal

any sort of first-responder type vehicle,

whether it's a fire engine, a police car, ambulances.

Unfortunately, it does happen from time to time.

I'm just glad that nobody was injured.

Whoever left the keys in this fire truck

is gonna have a lot of explaining to do to the fire chief.

Let's keep the fire trucks for the professionals.

The driver was taken into custody.

Nobody was harmed.

But the truck needed extensive repairs.

Our next story takes us down the coast

to the beachy city of San Diego,

where police officers have been called to a pharmacy

after reports that a woman has stolen

several hundred dollars worth of merchandise.

When they arrive, it seems this criminal mastermind

is willing to risk it all for one last sip.

Yes, this is a bizarre story.

A female inside of a pharmacy store takes a bunch of stuff.

When the police show up, they try and apprehend her.

Well, apparently she was having a bad day.

The suspect in this case knew she was going to jail.

She was intoxicated and she wanted to finish her bottle

before she was taken into custody.

The suspect is not compliant.

She's trying to drink her bottle of wine.

And so we have a standoff till she's done.

She gets out a bottle of wine,

starts drinking and drinking and drinking.

She has no care in the world

and certainly doesn't even seem bothered

that there are police pointing guns at her.

With weapons drawn and police patience wearing thin,

the standoff continues as the suspect remains defiant.

She's not going anywhere.

She's trying to live out her last moments.

And this is essentially a standoff.

I mean, this is like the Wild West.

Things can change at any moment.

As a cameraman on something like this,

you wanna get the shot, but you don't wanna get shot.

You never know how these things are gonna end.

It could be peaceful.

It could be extremely violent.

There's a lot of police there with guns drawn.

If that suspect runs, pulls out a weapon,

there's gonna be gunfire all over the place.

You let your guard down, you can be in big trouble.

Five seconds, and you can be dead.

When it comes to the police department,

we try to make sure that time is on our side.

We wanna wait the person out so that they give up peacefully.

The suspect eventually finishes her bottle of wine

and surrenders to the police.

They just had to wait it out... until she finished her wine.

I mean, I love a good bottle of wine any day,

but this is really utilising

those resources that can be elsewhere, saving lives.

There's no reason to have that many resources on the car.

We'd have walked up and taken her into custody

without all of that wait time or all the people around.

That was unnecessary.

Lucky for her, it ended peacefully.

Because I've seen situations like this before

that have turned around and gone curly quickly.

Cheers to justice served.

Another case closed by the sobering power of wine.

Coming up later...

You can see that the suspect used something really unusual.

-I've never heard that in my life. -But first...

We are seeing these armed home invasions happen

in a lot of these protected areas, like Beverly Hills.

Suspects are following these homeowners

back to their residence.

A home burglary occurs every 15 seconds

in the United States.

This means that approximately 4,800 invasions happen every day.

Home invasions are a nightmare for anyone to think about.

It may just be a knock on the door.

You answer the door, and they push their way in.

People have become more and more bold.

We are seeing these armed home invasions happen

in a lot of these protected areas,

like Beverly Hills, Bel-Air, Holmby Hills.

A lot of the times, the suspects are following these homeowners

back to their residence

before they jump in and try and rob them.

In the mind of a criminal, that's an easy come up.

It's dead of night in the peaceful neighbourhood of El Monte,

east of downtown Los Angeles.

But the tranquillity is quickly shattered

as police rush to the scene of a terrifying home invasion.

Two intruders broke into a home,

and a scuffle happened

between three residents and the intruders.

Gunfire was heard.

Whenever you hear a code come out with "shots fired,"

you know it's gonna be a good story.

When a violent situation

where you have an individual with a gun or a shooting,

we have to work with law enforcement

for them to clear that area.

Then we can tend to the medical needs of those injured.

One suspect is arrested by police immediately.

The other decides to make a run for it.

A manhunt is underway.

Three people from the house

were transported to hospital with minor injuries.

We used to never cover armed home invasions in these areas.

Now that's where these criminals are really striking

because they know there's gonna be

more that they can get their hands on.

The search is on as SWAT officers

comb the area with a sense of urgency.

After a tense pursuit,

another suspect is caught, and justice is served once again.

But the hunt is far from over

as a dangerous criminal remains on the loose.

It's close to 1:00 a.m. in South Los Angeles,

and an armed man is playing

a dangerous game of cat and mouse with the police.

This is a wild pursuit.

Obviously, a very disgruntled man behind the wheel.

He's clearly and visibly upset.

He's driving erratically, on three wheels, smoking the tires,

reversing his vehicle towards police officers.

In this situation, the suspect led the officers on a lengthy pursuit.

He was not following orders.

They had attempted numerous times to get the vehicle to stop.

My initial gut reaction to seeing this is,

"Ugh, no, it's going to be dangerous for whomever's on the scene

because it's a domestic violence call."

So domestic violence situations

are the most dangerous situations that police officers go on.

The suspect, nine out of ten times,

is armed, dangerous and...does not care.

In this case, the suspect was armed. He had a gun.

It raises the level of danger

once you know that the suspect is armed

and he's not willing to give himself up.

You never know what a person is capable of.

-Talk about whatever... -You're gonna get shot!

Officers use a spike strip

in a desperate attempt to stop the deranged driver.

It barely slows him down.

Sometimes the cameramen get too close to situations.

A cameraman has a difficult job.

They have to capture footage,

and sometimes that involves him, yeah, getting a little too close.

There's that bit in us

that wants to get as close as possible.

In a situation like this,

the cameraman doesn't wanna become the story.

We have to take cover at any moment.

You're gonna get shot!

Coming up...

He doesn't give himself up.

And then, all of a sudden, you hear shots being fired.

After responding to a domestic violence call

in South Los Angeles,

police are led on a wild pursuit.

This suspect is armed, dangerous

and refusing to go down without a fight.

Anything could happen.

This is a wild pursuit.

They had attempted numerous times to get the vehicle to stop.

In this case, the suspect was armed. He had a gun.

You never know what a person is capable of or willing to do.

The police officers always wanna come

to a peaceful resolution at the end of a pursuit.

But in this case, the guy did not wanna give up.

Regardless of what they tried,

he didn't stop until the vehicle was finally...unable to continue.

At the end of this pursuit, the suspect stops.

The chase comes to a screeching halt

as the minivan finally grinds to a stop.

Police have got him surrounded.

But he doesn't give himself up.

The driver emerges clutching a blanket

before suddenly drawing a gun.

Officers have the responsibility to preserve life.

At the moment where a suspect starts shooting,

they have a duty to act.

Then, all of a sudden, you hear shots being fired.

So officers returned fire.

When I've been in similar situations to this,

you've got to stay out of the way, but you've also got to get the shot.

We wanna run toward those gunshots, unfortunately.

And sometimes you can get in the crosshairs of that.

You can see the cameraman was ducking for cover.

The suspect was taken to a hospital, where he unfortunately died.

It doesn't rain much in Southern California.

But when it does, it really rains.

Our infrastructure just really can't handle it.

We always, every year, see flooding, without a doubt.

This situation was extremely dangerous.

It's 9:37 a.m.,

and multiple emergency responders and search and rescue units

have been dispatched to an incident

of a man stuck in a fast-moving flash flood.

So, what we saw was what we'd call a swift water rescue.

Those incidents

become very challenging for first responders.

Someone ended up in the flood control channel,

and a torrent of water coming past.

If you're standing there, you're gone.

You've gotta grab hold of something tight.

If this person wasn't able to hang on to that vegetation,

that person would just continue to go downstream.

If you get swept away in that situation, you're done.

They will probably not find you.

How do you even attempt to figure out how to get them out?

Unfortunately, a lot of times, the water rescues that we see

are where there are homeless encampments.

It's very common for homeless people

to live near the wash area or river beds.

They don't have television out there.

They can't watch the local news. They don't have cell phones.

So they have no idea the severity of the weather

and the torrential downpour that can happen.

You're asleep.

Next thing you know, you got boulders and trees coming past you.

But he has a massive problem. How do you solve it?

You bring in everything you can.

Helicopter hoist rescues are a daring feat of bravery and skill,

where one false move could spell disaster.

As firefighters, we wanna make sure we're there to solve the problem.

We don't wanna become part of the problem.

We're watching the whole thing unfold

right in front of our eyes with the helicopters.

The best option might be

a first responder come down from a helicopter

and then put the patient into a harness,

and then extract them that way.

You have two outcomes in something like this.

You drown, or you get rescued.

You've got tree branches, huge logs.

You've got boulders. You've got dirt.

Imagine all that coming down at the speed of a car.

The rescue operation was incredible.

They did what they had to do, and they saved his life.

They got him out safely.

The people that are doing that are highly-trained professionals.

We saw a really positive outcome in this footage.

I mean, they're just the bravest humans alive.

I've been on situations like this where people haven't made it.

The man was saved and on dry ground by 10:13 a.m.

He was medically evaluated

and reported to be in good condition.

This guy is extremely, extremely lucky.

Coming up...

You can see that the suspect used something really unusual.

It's just...It's bizarre.

Also...

That's probably not somebody of sober mind.

I mean, how do you approach a situation like this?

You don't know what that person's thinking.

Los Angeles, the City of Angels,

the City of Dreams

and the City of Liquor Store Robbers?

It's 12:50 a.m.,

and one store owner is in for a shock.

In the City of Angels, there are tons of robberies

and armed robberies.

However, in this particular video,

you can see that the suspect used something really unusual.

The weird thing about this story is one of the suspects...

had a cattle prod.

The cattle-prod-wielding criminal robs about $5,000 in five minutes

in the second stop on his rampage.

I've been to many robberies in my career,

and I've never seen a suspect armed with a cattle prod.

It's like a long Taser.

I've never heard that in my life. It's just...It's bizarre.

Typically, this can go really wrong in a lot of cases that I've seen.

They're an immense danger.

Sometimes it results

in these clerks getting beat up or killed.

Knowing he is outmatched, the shop clerk surrenders.

The clerk did what you're supposed to do,

which is just, "Take what you want. Go for it."

After this had happened, I talked to the store owner,

and he was more upset

that they took his phone with his family pictures on

than the $5,000.

The store owner is unharmed,

but the cattle-prod robber gets away.

The next story takes us all the way south of Los Angeles

to the coast of San Diego.

Police have received calls of a disturbance

in an apartment complex,

but they are in for a sharp surprise when they arrive.

This is an extremely dangerous situation.

A guy's wandering around

outside of his apartment complex with a huge sword.

My initial thoughts are

that's probably not somebody of sober mind.

This call was someone who had been swinging a sword around

outside of his apartment complex.

I mean, how do you approach a situation like this?

How do you...tackle someone that has a sword?

You don't know what that person's thinking.

He looked very confused at times.

He definitely probably was doing some bad drugs.

You don't know if they're mentally disturbed.

You don't know if they've just had a bad day.

He looks agitated. He looks he's pacing up and down.

There's a bunch of cops there.

They all have their rifles out.

With the spotlight, you can see the red laser on his chest.

Having heard the commotion,

a resident recklessly steps in to help.

The good Samaritan was pretty brave.

I'm not sure that I would approach somebody with the sword.

In their mind, they think they're helping the police,

but in fact, they're putting themselves at risk.

You know what he's thinking?

He can turn around and run towards you.

And at that point, what do you do? It's a sword. It's not a knife.

The thing is a sword.

Shockingly, the brave resident

is able to successfully disarm the suspect.

He disarmed the subject.

However, he also put himself at risk

because officers had their guns drawn.

The amount of resources it took to bring this to a conclusion...

I mean, you got police dogs. You got specially trained officers.

You got just every resource you can imagine.

It's a good all-around end to the story

because nobody got hurt.

The interfering civilian got lucky this time.

The sword-wielding suspect is taken into custody.

Subtitles: Lea Espector plint.com