Person involved in Beverly Hills luxury car incident claims diplomatic immunity: police

By Alex Dobuzinskis

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - One of the participants in an incident caught on video in which two luxury cars zoomed through residential streets in Beverly Hills, California, over the weekend has claimed diplomatic immunity, police said.

A State Department official said the agency had received a request to confirm the possible immunity status of a person from Qatar.

But the official, who declined to be identified, said the department had no information indicating anyone involved with the matter was entitled to diplomatic or consular immunity.

In the video, which was shown on Los Angeles television station KABC, the luxury cars are seen traveling at apparently high speeds through a residential street and blowing through at least one stop sign.

The video shows one of the cars, which appears to be a Ferrari, pulling into the driveway of a house at one point, with smoke rising from the vehicle. Police can later be seen approaching the home.

Beverly Hills police spokesman Sergeant Kurt Haefs said the incident occurred on Sunday and that a person who was involved made a claim of diplomatic immunity. Police had not arrested anyone in the case, which remained under investigation in cooperation with the State Department, he said.

(Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis in Los Angeles and Lesley Wroughton in Washington; Editing by Peter Cooney)