A “maniac” carjacker has been caught live on television leading police on high-speed chase through the streets of Los Angeles, carjacking a vehicle at gunpoint and crashing at least six times. 
 
 The spree during Monday’s evening rush hour only stopped when the suspect failed to steal a third car that sped away and was shot in the road by police. He is under arrest in hospital. 
 
 It started shortly after 5pm local time in downtown LA, when police tried to pull over the man because he was driving a car listed as stolen. 
 
 But he drove away, starting the chase that would continue through the city and its suburbs, the LA Times reported. 
 
 Footage captured by a helicopter and broadcast on live television showed the car speeding at around 60mph up a three-lane motorway, crashing several times at junctions before veering over pavements and into oncoming traffic on the wrong side of the road. 
 
 The car skidded and started spinning, hitting several other vehicles before coming to a stop in the middle of the road. 
 
 The driver is seen jumping out of the crushed and smoking car before trying to carjack another vehicle, which sped away from him, and pulling what appeared to be a gun on the driver in the car behind it. 
 
 The suspected carjacker fleeing a crashed car 
 
 The footage shows onlookers at the side of the road running away as a woman is thrown out of the car and the gunman speeds off down a side street. 
 
 The woman, later identified as 22-year-old Elizabeth Yarahuan, told KABC-TV Channel 7: “He just came up to me and pointed the gun at me and told me to get out of my car. I was just scared he was going to hurt me.” 
 
 At least eight LAPD cars and helicopters tracked the suspect as the chase continued on several motorways until heavy traffic in Montebello stopped the suspect’s escape. 
 
 Stuck between stationary cars, cameras captured him jumping out of his vehicle and attempting to hijack two more. 
 
 Police attempt to stop the driver as he speeds off again 
 
 But as the second driver resisted and drove away, police running after the suspect on shot him as he fled down the road. He was handcuffed on the ground and taken to hospital in an ambulance. 
 
 Last night, the suspect was alive in hospital being treated for “multiple” gunshot wounds. 
 
 “This individual acted with a complete disregard for other people's lives,” Los Angeles Police Department Commander Andy Smith told the LA Times. 
 
 “He callously put innocent people's lives in danger, even after the police backed off the pursuit and tracked with the helicopter. Thank God no one was killed by this maniac.” ||||| In the land of high-speed chases, it was a menacing ride. 
 
 An armed man careened down traffic-clogged freeways during Monday's evening commute, bobbing and weaving across southeast Los Angeles County, often against traffic. 
 
 He collided with at least six vehicles and forced a 22-year-old woman out of her car at gunpoint, police said. 
 
 The chase came to a halt only after as many as three officers fired bullets into him on live television, arresting him as he lay on the pavement in Montebello. 
 
 "This individual acted with a complete disregard for other people's lives," Los Angeles Police Department Cmdr. Andy Smith told The Times. 
 
 "He callously put innocent people's lives in danger, even after the police backed off the pursuit and tracked with the helicopter. Thank God no one was killed by this maniac." 
 
 As of 10 p.m., the man -- who had not yet been identified -- was alive in the hospital with multiple gunshot wounds. His exact condition was unknown, Sgt. Frank Preciado said. 
 
 The pursuit began about 5:15 p.m. near the intersection of East 1st and Soto streets east of downtown Los Angeles on reports of a stolen vehicle. 
 
 Officers in the Hollenbeck Division called for backup before attempting to pull over the man; the vehicle's license plates were listed as stolen. 
 
 The driver failed to stop, spawning a high-speed chase that wound through southeast Los Angeles County and neighboring cities. 
 
 About 5:30 p.m., the man crashed his car near Imperial Highway, then pulled out what appeared to be a gun and stole a car driven by a woman, later identified as 22-year-old Elizabeth Yarahuan. 
 
 "He just came up to me and pointed the gun at me and told me to get out of my car," Yarahuan told KABC-TV Channel 7. "I was just scared he was going to hurt me." 
 
 The pursuit continued onto the westbound 105 Freeway before the driver darted onto the northbound 710 Freeway. 
 
 At least eight LAPD patrol cars trailed the suspect as helicopters tracked his movements. 
 
 The man continued onto the eastbound 60 Freeway, but as he exited the freeway in Montebello, the vehicle he apparently carjacked was hemmed in by heavy traffic. 
 
 After exiting the car, he was pursued on foot by about a dozen officers. After he brandished a gun and tried to carjack a second car, as many as three officers opened fire at him, Preciado said. 
 
 It's unclear how many bullets struck the suspect. A throng of officers surrounded him as he was arrested near Via Campo and Garfield Avenue. 
 
 A semiautomatic firearm was recovered at the scene. 
 
 For breaking news in California, follow @MattHjourno and @LACrimes. ||||| MONTEBELLO, Calif. (AP) — A gunman driving a suspected stolen car led police on a wild chase on roads and freeways east of Los Angeles, smashing into other cars and veering through oncoming traffic before he stole a second car at gunpoint and ran down a crowded street before Los Angeles police opened fire, wounded him and finally arrested him. 
 
 Officers shot the man as he ran on a roadway and appeared to be trying to steal yet another car before he was handcuffed and taken to a hospital in an ambulance, police spokeswoman Rosario Herrera said. 
 
 Police did not release the name or condition of the man, but said he was still alive several hours after the Monday night shooting and is between 20 and 30 years old. 
 
 The woman whose car was stolen at gunpoint on live TV was not hurt but was deeply shaken afterward. 
 
 "He just came up to me and pointed the gun at me and told me to get out of my car," Elizabeth Yarahuan, 22, told KABC-TV as she tried to fight back tears. "I unbuckled myself and I opened the door and ran out. It was horrible. I don't wish that on nobody." 
 
 The chase began about 5 p.m. with officers answering a report of a possible stolen car east of downtown, police said. 
 
 The Toyota sped through South Gate and other cities southeast of Los Angeles. The car zoomed through traffic, sometimes going the wrong way, and struck cars at least four times before it was finally unable to continue. 
 
 The man, wearing a white T-shirt, jumped out and tried to steal another car. As television news helicopters hovered overhead, he pulled what appeared to be a gun, stole Yarahuan's car and took off. 
 
 That car raced along Interstate 710 and state Route 60 with at least eight patrol cars in pursuit. 
 
 The car finally veered onto an offramp and onto a Montebello street, where it became wedged between two other vehicles in traffic. 
 
 The man jumped out and pulled open a door on a stopped SUV as police chased him. He tried to stop another car that took off before pursuing officers took him down. 
 
 No officers were hurt, but there was no immediate word on whether any other motorists were hurt. 
 
 Driver Martha Duron said she was fine after her car was sideswiped, but it could easily have been different. 
 
 "If he would've hit me hard, in the front, I would've been gone," she told KCAL-TV. "He was going so fast."
– A suspect was shot several times and arrested last night after a car chase that was wild even by Los Angeles standards. Police say that after the armed man they describe as a "maniac" was spotted driving a suspected stolen car east of downtown, he sped through traffic, sometimes on the wrong side of the road, and hit at least four other cars as he was pursued through southeast Los Angeles County, the AP reports. With the chase being broadcast live on TV, the suspect crashed the first vehicle and carjacked another before speeding off. After becoming trapped in traffic, cameras captured the man fleeing on foot and attempting to hijack two more vehicles before he was shot by officers pursuing him, reports the Independent. "This individual acted with a complete disregard for other people's lives," a police spokesman tells the Los Angeles Times. "He callously put innocent people's lives in danger, even after the police backed off the pursuit and tracked with the helicopter. Thank God no one was killed by this maniac." Another police spokesman says the suspect is in the hospital with multiple gunshot wounds. The 22-year-old woman who was carjacked says she's thankful her children weren't in the car. "He just came up to me and pointed the gun at me and told me to get out [of] my car. I unbuckled ... and opened the door and ran out," she tells CBS 2. "It was horrible." Police say that if the suspect survives, he'll be charged with multiple felonies.