Man Leads Police on 150-Mile Chase : Crime: Suspect, who was on parole, fled when he was stopped for driving the wrong way. He faces charges of assaulting police officers with a deadly weapon.

It all started with a truck going the wrong way on Monterey Place in Burbank.

Park Ranger Brandon Ward noticed Fernando Jaime Ramos, 25, of Arleta driving the wrong direction on a one-way street near Vickroy Park about 8:30 p.m. Monday, according to police. The ranger pulled over Ramos and parked his cruiser behind the truck.

But when Ward walked toward the Isuzu truck, Ramos put it into reverse and allegedly tried to run him over, authorities said. Ramos veered into a blind alley, turned around and drove at Ward’s car, police said. Ward swerved out of the way, dodging the truck by inches, and called for police.

The chase was on.

It would end almost 2 1/2 hours and 150 miles later, when a Burbank police officer rammed Ramos’ truck with his patrol car, causing it to fishtail out of control and crash into the wall of a Vernon industrial building.

Along the way, Ramos and his retinue of pursuing police cars barreled along city streets that looped through much of the Los Angeles urban area: the San Fernando Valley, Hollywood, Beverly Hills and Westwood, then down along the ocean and through Santa Monica. In Venice he drove through a patchwork of alleys and then barreled along the boardwalk at speeds near 40 m.p.h.

Driving through Wilmington, Ramos ran over a small dog, police said. Soon after, in Dominguez Hills, police shot out his tires. Fifteen miles later, in an empty stretch of Vernon, a police cruiser rammed the truck. When it finally stopped moving, Ramos was surrounded by officers with drawn guns and dragged from the cab. He suffered minor cuts.

Ramos was in Burbank jail Tuesday, being held without bail on suspicion of assaulting police officers with a deadly weapon.

Ramos’ mother, Leticia Ramos, and other relatives said that Ramos refused to surrender--although he was clearly incapable of escaping in the slow and damaged truck--because he had been paroled from prison four months ago and was told he would be imprisoned for life if he was arrested again. Burbank Police Sgt. William Berry, who supervised the pursuit, said one of the prior arrests on Ramos’ long rap sheet is for evading police officers.

“Some people can’t break their bad habits,” Berry said.