Man in L.A. highway standoff shot

The man was rushed to a nearby hospital after being shot and critically wounded by officers early Thursday

LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- An armed man who led police on a car chase for nearly five hours was shot and critically wounded by officers during a lengthy standoff early Thursday, the California Highway Patrol said.

Patrol Officer Rosa Ray said Santiago Gutierrez was taken to the hospital at 2:25 a.m. (5:25 a.m. EDT) Thursday.

Gutierrez, 39, sat in his silver Chevrolet Astro van on Interstate 10 eastbound for more than six hours overnight in the Baldwin Park area of northeast Los Angeles, police said. At least 11 police cruisers, one fire engine, and dozens of police and Highway Patrol officers were stationed behind the parked van, their guns drawn and flood lights aimed at it.

The standoff followed a 4 1/2-hour police chase through northeast Los Angeles in which Gutierrez at times drove faster than 100 mph, occasionally talking on a cell phone.

Police said the pursuit began when Gutierrez robbed a Mobil gas station at about 3:20 p.m. (6:20 p.m. EDT). Station customers called police, reporting they had seen a man with a gun inside a vehicle. Officers arrived before the man left the grounds, but he fled when they approached him, said Baldwin Park Police Lt. Ed Lopez.

Lopez said Gutierrez had been armed with an automatic weapon. The van was not stolen, he said. It was not immediately clear what Gutierrez stole from the store.

Ray said that friends and relatives told police that Gutierrez had phoned them during the chase, saying he was "really distraught" and was not going to go to jail.

"He said he was going to come out of it in a blaze of glory," Ray said. Friends and relatives told police Gutierrez is going through a divorce and losing his house.

Gutierrez was driving this silver Chevrolet Astro van when the 4 1/2 hour police chase ensued

At 7:51 p.m. (10:51 p.m. EDT), Gutierrez apparently ran out of gas and stopped on I-10 eastbound in Baldwin Park -- just a few miles from the gas station where the pursuit began. A police special weapons and tactics unit attempted to negotiate with the suspect.

The standoff ended when Gutierrez fired at police officers, who returned fire and struck him, Ray said.

At one point after the chase ended, Gutierrez smeared a white substance on the front windows, obscuring the view inside. Police sent a robotic device equipped with a camera to the van to keep tabs on him.

A few homes near the standoff scene were evacuated as a safety precaution, Lopez said.

Gutierrez is believed to be from the San Gabriel Valley area, near Baldwin Park.