Suspect Hits Car, Kills Driver During Pursuit

A police chase that began when a woman ran a red light in El Segundo on Thursday ended in Gardena when she ran another one and broadsided a car, killing the driver, authorities said.

Lisa Ann Rarick, 32, a political consultant from Rolling Hills Estates, died immediately in the 1:45 a.m. crash, El Segundo police said.

Police had tried to stop Rebecca Taylor, 34, of El Segundo when she ran a light, El Segundo Police Lt. David Cummings said. But she sped away, driving east on Imperial Highway, then east on the Century Freeway, reaching speeds of about 100 mph, he said. Two police cars chased her as she got off the freeway.

Rarick was turning onto Rosecrans Avenue from Vermont Avenue when Taylor’s car broadsided her on the passenger side at 60 mph or more, splitting Rarick’s car in two, police said. Rarick was thrown 80 feet, said Scott Carrier, a spokesman for the coroner’s office.

Police are awaiting results from toxicology tests to determine if Taylor had been drinking.

Taylor was treated for minor injuries at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center in Torrance and booked into the County Jail Thursday afternoon, Cummings said, adding she would be charged with murder.

Cummings said officers were about a quarter of a mile behind Taylor when she crashed. El Segundo police, he said, are trained to let pursuits “run their course.”

“The person runs out of gas or gets lost or gives up,” he said. Rarick, who was single and a graduate of UC San Diego, had been returning from a dance club to the house she shared with her parents on Pinto Lane, relatives said Thursday.

Relatives described Rarick, the youngest of seven children, as religious, energetic, funny and organized. She had just finished planning an anniversary celebration for her parents, they said.

“Lisa was really a humorous person,” said Nicole Rogers, her 14-year-old niece. “Everyone wanted to be around her. She was the one who would hold the family together.”