{"id":276395,"date":"2026-04-20T04:47:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-20T04:47:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/276395\/"},"modified":"2026-04-20T04:47:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-20T04:47:10","slug":"california-man-steals-police-cruiser-and-leads-deputies-on-high-speed-chase","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/276395\/","title":{"rendered":"California man steals police cruiser and leads deputies on high-speed chase"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>RIDGECREST, Calif. (KERO) \u2014 A 41-year-old California man is back in custody after stealing a police cruiser and leading deputies on a high-speed chase of Highway 14.<\/p>\n<p>Police in Ridgecrest arrested Julian Harper late Saturday night. Officers said while Harper was being transported to Lerdo Jail, he assaulted another detainee in the back of the patrol car.<\/p>\n<p>The transporting officer pulled over to stop the attack. Investigators said Harper fought the officer and stole the cruiser.<\/p>\n<p>Harper led deputies on a high-speed chase and hit another car before eventually crashing into a guardrail, where he was arrested.<\/p>\n<p>The officer and the people in the other car suffered minor injuries.<\/p>\n<p>The Ridgecrest Police Department is now conducting an internal review.<\/p>\n<p>This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.<\/p>\n<p>Stay in Touch with Us Anytime, Anywhere:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"RIDGECREST, Calif. (KERO) \u2014 A 41-year-old California man is back in custody after stealing a police cruiser and&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":276396,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[152,7,9,859,8,119549,162,4698,119550,60715],"class_list":{"0":"post-276395","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-california","8":"tag-bakersfield-news","9":"tag-california","10":"tag-california-headlines","11":"tag-california-highway-patrol","12":"tag-california-news","13":"tag-highway-14","14":"tag-kern-county-news","15":"tag-kern-county-sheriffs-office","16":"tag-ridgecrest-news","17":"tag-ridgecrest-police-department"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276395","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=276395"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276395\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/276396"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=276395"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=276395"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=276395"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}