High-Speed Chase Ends When Pantsless Man Is Bitten by Police Dog and Tasered

A half-naked man who was bitten by a police dog and Tasered after leading police on a high-speed chase that ended in Seal Beach on Thursday is out of the hospital and booked into the Orange County Jail, authorities said.

Long Beach resident Scott Balbirnie, 39, was booked on suspicion of evading arrest and driving while under the influence of narcotics.

The chase began just after 3 a.m. in Westminster when a man called the police to report that an erratic driver was following him. When Westminster police caught up with Balbirnie, he refused to stop, driving at speeds of 80 mph to Huntington Beach and eventually to the intersection of Westminster and Seal Beach boulevards in Seal Beach, said Sgt. Richard Mize.

“We had the whole intersection blocked off,” said Mize. “The windows were so filthy, we could not see inside the car.”

For nearly 20 minutes, officers from Seal Beach, Los Alamitos, Cypress and Westminster waited for Balbirnie to get out of the car. As they waited, information came in that Balbirnie had earlier fled from Long Beach police officers, who had seen him doing narcotics in the front seat of his car, Mize said.

Officers shot a beanbag round through the driver’s side window as Balbirnie, who was not wearing pants, attempted to start his car and drive away, added Mize.

“He was yelling at us, and he didn’t seem afraid of the dog at all. We told him numerous times that if the K-9 was deployed, he would be bitten by the dog,” Mize said. “We didn’t know if he had a gun in the front seat.”

Following the beanbag round, police sent a German shepherd through the driver’s side window to keep Balbirnie from driving away, but he beat the dog over the head with a metal object, Mize said. The dog wasn’t hurt, but police used a stun gun on Balbirnie to get him to stop beating the dog.

“Sometimes police work is ugly work,” Mize said. “But the techniques we were using were to try to reduce the risk to officers, to him and to try to minimize the chance of anyone sustaining injury.”

Balbirnie was arrested on suspicion of felony evading arrest, driving under the influence of narcotics, being under the influence of narcotics, possession of narcotics, assaulting a police K-9 and resisting arrest.