February 10, 2009

Man shoots self after slow speed car chase

A driver of a Bentley led Los Angeles police in a more than three-hour car chase Monday night, shooting himself during a standoff after he pulled over.

The AP posted a short story on the wire, while live feeds captured the chase. The Los Angeles Times reported that the man was brought to a hospital and his condition is "grave." It later reported he had died.

Twitter-ers followed along, with 659 tweets using the hashtag #chase and 554 using #bentley by 1:30 a.m. PST Tuesday.

@maggietheresa: #chase... a high speech chase involving a Bentley though, nice to see the recession isn't hurting everyone.....



@dan_miller (Broken Arrow, Okla.): Man I should get some sleep but can't beat a low speed car #chase



@mightymendoza (Los Angeles): Top trending topic on Twitter currently? Yep. You guessed it. #chase



@thekiwanian (Tucson, Ariz.): I've never been so enthralled in a chase/standoff before, but... now what? #bentley



@longbaugh (Minneapolis, Minn.): Followed the live feeds of that LA car chase, and the subsequent ending. Interesting stuff. Wonder who it was, since it seems it wasn't DJK.


Some news outlets reported on how people were tweeting about the event.

@jonassink (Mount Hermon, Calif.): NICE! Twitter mentioned on KABC broadcast! Twitter reporting FTW! #chase



@jamieharrington (Lewisville, Texas): "He may be a person of significance, and apparently people are twittering about this as well" ABC 7 #bentley #chase


Rumors about Chris Brown and DJ Khaled being the driver of the car also dominated the conversation.


@admorales (New Jersey): Do you think this guy being chased by LAPD will ever find out that media thought he was Chris Brown or DJ Khaled? #chase #bentley



@josephrosario: DJ KHALED was NOT in the vehicle. According to @seamoss Khaled's in FL. Anonymous #bentley #chase driver is dead. Retweet please.


Chicago newspaper Redeye said this story was an example of how Twitter-ers contribute to journalism:


@redeyechicago (Chicago): At the end of the day, this type of reporting is the future of journalism. Everyone does some reporting. Great topic for another day.

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