Full Notification

The morning of May 17, Simi Valley Police Department officers responded to the Ronald Reagan Library for a report of a subject refusing to leave the property.  When the first officer arrived on scene and exited her patrol vehicle, the subject drove toward the officer, narrowly missing her and her patrol vehicle.  The officer attempted to stop the subject, who was identified as Melissa Kotulski a 47 year-old Connecticut resident, but Kotulski refused to stop.

Kotulski led officers southbound to the 101 freeway and then east to the 134 and 210 freeways.  SVPD officers turned the pursuit over to the California Highway Patrol, with the assistance of a Los Angeles Police Department air unit, in the city of Claremont.  CHP pursued Kotulski into the city of Highland, where the pursuit was ended when spike strips were successfully deployed to deflate the tires on Kotulski's vehicle.

SVPD officers responded to the termination of the pursuit and arrested Kotulski for assault with a deadly weapon on a peace officer and reckless evading.  She was booked at the Ventura County Sheriff's Pre-Trial Detention Facility.