Is a video showing a suspect climbing on top of an SUV to taunt police during a car chase in Los Angeles authentic? No, that's not true: The original footage of the car chase, captured by a local news station, does not show the driver climbing onto the roof of a white SUV to dance and taunt police in L.A. Glitches in the video indicate it is AI-generated. There are no credible news reports of a suspect dancing on the roof of a white SUV during an L.A. car chase.
The claim appeared in an August 1, 2026, post on X account @FranceNews24 (archived here). The English translation of the post's original French caption read:
⚡️ SHOCKING VIDEO - #UnitedStates: During a high-speed chase in southern Los Angeles, a suspect climbed out the window of his moving SUV before mounting the vehicle's roof to taunt the police with a...
The scene, particularly spectacular, was broadcast live. 🚔🚙
This is what the a screengrab of the video looked like:
(Image source: post by @FranceNews24 on X.)
This is what the video looked like on X at the time of writing:
⚡️ VIDÉO CHOC - #ÉtatsUnis : Lors d'une course-poursuite dans le sud de Los Angeles, un suspect est sorti par la fenêtre de son SUV en mouvement avant de monter sur le toit du véhicule pour provoquer les policiers avec une...
-- FranceNews24 (@FranceNews24) August 1, 2026
La scène, particulièrement spectaculaire, a été... pic.twitter.com/szsrdDKv5a
The video posted on X does not identify a news station, but video posted on July 31, 2026, on Instagram account @bongo_electronics_ tz (archived here) included the KTLA 5 logo and banner and the hashtag #contentcreator, as this screenshot shows:
(Image source: post by @bongo_electronics_tz on Instagram.)
A car chase captured by the KTLA 5 news station on July 28, 2026 (archived here), showed a suspect driving a white SUV through Los Angeles. The article did not mention the driver of the car climbing on the roof and dancing while the SUV moved on the street. Nowhere in the footage does the driver climb onto the roof of the vehicle to dance and taunt LAPD officers, as video posted on the KTLA 5 YouTube channel (archived here) shows:
Multiple glitches in the video posted on X indicate it was generated by AI. At :02 in the video, the arrows in front of the SUV are turned the wrong way, and the driver is not driving on the wrong side of the road, as this screenshot shows (all red circles added by Lead Stories):
(Image source: post by @FranceNews24 on X.)
The person on the roof of the SUV has a skinny left arm and the right hand appears to only have four fingers, as this screenshot shows:
(Image source: post by @FranceNews24 on X.)
A police vehicle has several telltale signs of AI: The markings on the roof are not clear, and there are no logos on the doors of the police cars. The front end of the police car is unnaturally short, and does not seem to exist at all. Here is a screenshot showing the police car:
(Image source: post by @FranceNews24 on X.)
Had there been a car chase in Los Angeles with the driver climbing out of the vehicle and dancing on the roof, it would have been reported in the news. Lead Stories searched Google News (archived here) and Yahoo News (archived here) and did not find any credible news reports about the incident.
