On June 17, 1994 celebrity and NFL player OJ Simpson had failed turn himself in to the LAPD in connection with the killing of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman.
He was spotted on the 5 Freeway in the back seat of his friend Al Cowlings’ Ford Bronco, sobbing and holding a .357 revolver to Cowlings’ head as he drove.
Simpson’s former football coach John McKay pleaded on the radio for Simpson to surrender. While watching the events unfold, Tom Lange realized he had Simpson’s cell phone number and managed to connect to him. Eventually Simpson was talked into surrendering.
The chase ended at 8:00 pm at his Brentwood estate, where 27 SWAT officers awaited. After remaining in the Bronco for about 45 minutes, Simpson exited and went inside for about an hour; a police spokesman stated that he spoke to his mother and drank a glass of orange juice.
Inside the Bronco, police found $8,000 in cash, a change of clothing, a loaded .357 Magnum, a United States passport, family pictures, and a disguise kit with a fake goatee and mustache.
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I had just finished third grade when this happened. I was hit by a car the last week of school and was in a full body cast that went from my rib cage down my left leg to my foot. I watched the chase on tv and the subsequent trial while I healed. I had no frame of reference at the time but damned if the trial didn’t happen pretty quickly after the event. The chase itself was on just about every channel of network tv from what I remember. Formative memory.
All that ruckus and he turned out to be completely innocent! /s
There’s a pretty strong theory that he was covering for his son.
No there isn’t.
Holy crap. I thought he was driving the car. I didn’t realize he was a passenger holding a gun to the driver’s head.
Very common behavior in innocent people. /s
How does this rank in terms of (in)famous highway chases from police? I’m asking because I’ve seen this scenario in the Simpsons, I think, and other fictional shows and I am wondering how much of a reference to OJ these are
Easily #1. It’s probably the only one most people think of when they think “police chase”
Very famous and recognizable, at least for people old enough to have seen it happen live. It has been referenced in South Park for sure.
Unless Trump tries to run for it in his limo, I think it’s pretty safe to assume the OJ chase in the Blanco Bronco will remain the most famous of all time.
FWIW, I cant recall a single other person’s name from a car chase, but I have this entire day on recall. What I was doing, the incident etc. I’ve only got that with one other day. 9/11.
OJ was a huge household name, LAPD was beating prime left and right, racial tension was at an all time high type explosion. And Internet wasn’t a thing but 24 hours news was, that brown bronco was on repeat for months, y maybe a year until that trial was over.
Brown Bronco? Is this a Mandela Effect, I clearly remember it was a White Bronco, and the photo this looks white as well…
I’m sure people will downvote me for this, but…
I remember my parents glued to the TV at the time and I, at 16, said, “who gives a shit? It’s just a football player.” And then there was the trial and my parents watched it every day and laughed at the Dancing Judge Itos on Leno and I said, “who gives a shit? It’s just a football player.” I mean yes, it’s a miscarriage of justice that he got let off when he was so obviously guilty, but that’s what happens when you can afford really expensive lawyers.
I have never understood why people are so obsessed with it. The only time I ever even think of it is when someone claims that “X is innocent because the court found him innocent” and I ask the person if that means OJ is innocent.
I lived in a mostly black neighborhood during this time, this was being looked at as Rodney king 2.0 and if he was guilty there were going to be riots, kinda hard to conceptionilize what it was like during that time period.
