CHP, deputies search for chase suspect in northern SLO County. ‘This guy is a magician.’

A North County manhunt that began Tuesday night with a high-speed chase continued well into Wednesday evening, as a suspect continued to evade capture while hiding in the Salinas Riverbed near San Miguel.

King City California Highway Patrol was the lead agency searching for the unidentified suspect, who as of 5:30 p.m. had last been seen hiding in the brush along the Riverbed.

The person was believed to have been the driver of a car that led CHP on a high-speed chase on Highway 101 on Tuesday night, before crashing and then fleeing the scene.

“We’ve had a couple of sightings of him, but as soon as we get close, he disappears,” Templeton CHP Officer Patrick Seebart told The Tribune on Wednesday evening.

Seebart said he was not aware of the identity of the suspect at this time, as King City CHP is the lead agency on the case. Templeton CHP was assisting in the search.

“We were even joking, like, this guy is a magician,” he said. “He just disappears. He’s got like a hole out there or something. We are still looking.”

As of 6 p.m., most law enforcement had been released from the Riverbed area, according to emergency scanner traffic, but no update was provided regarding the status of the search or if the suspect had been found.

Car chase went through Monterey, San Luis Obispo counties

It all started when a King City CHP officer attempted to stop a black Infiniti G35 for speeding in a construction zone south of the Bradley Rest Area at about 10:56 p.m. Tuesday, according to a CHP news release.

As the officer approached the vehicle to initiate the traffic stop, the driver “rapidly accelerated” south on Highway 101, according to the release.

The officer lost sight of the vehicle, but moments later, a Templeton CHP officer spotted the car speeding southbound on Highway 101 at the 17th Street exit in Paso Robles, the release said.

The officer chased the vehicle at speeds exceeding 100 mph, before it exited Highway 101 at Highway 46 West and re-entered the highway driving north.

The driver then evaded CHP northbound on Highway 101 until the Camp Roberts off-ramp, where the driver traveled the wrong way until the Bradley Rest Area, the release said.

The driver tried to exit the rest area parking lot at high speed and lost control of the car, crashing into a hillside west of the on-ramp, the release said.

The driver and Khari Aaron Yutsahn Young, of Oakland — who was believed to be the right-side passenger — then fled the scene on-foot.

Young was apprehended by CHP and taken to San Luis Obispo County Jail, the release said.

Booking information for Young, including what charges he may face as the passenger of the speeding vehicle, was not included in the SLO County Jail booking log.

The suspected driver fled on foot and was not apprehended at the time of the crash, the release said.

Late-night car chase expands into search for suspected driver in San Miguel

Around 11:20 a.m. Wednesday, law enforcement officers spotted a person later confirmed to be the suspected driver fleeing on foot in the Salinas Riverbed just north of San Miguel.

This kicked off an all-day search for the individual, who as of early Wednesday evening still appeared to be at large.

Law enforcement officers from the Templeton CHP, King City CHP and the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office searched for the suspect in the riverbed throughout the day.

Drones, two K9 units, a helicopter, at least eight foot units and an airplane were all dispatched to the area, CHP said in an update Wednesday afternoon.

After circling the area for roughly an hour, a CHP helicopter left the scene to refuel around 12:30 p.m., according to scanner chatter.

CHP said around 3:30 p.m. that they believe the suspect was hiding in the thick brush in and along the Salinas Riverbed.

At around 4:30 p.m., CHP Templeton posted an alert online warning residents about ongoing police activity at Cross Canyons and North River roads, as law enforcement continued its search.

Anyone with information about the possible driver is asked to call the Templeton CHP office at 805-400-6720.

Elementary school issues shelter-in-place order due to investigation

During the search, Lillian Larsen Elementary School in San Miguel was placed under a shelter-in-place order, according to a message from school superintendent Karen Granoldi.

The shelter-in-place order was initiated out of “an abundance of caution due to an ongoing investigation in the area,” the message said.

The email sent by Granoldi to Lillian Larsen Elementary parents was shared anonymously on the San Miguel Neighborhood Watch Facebook group.