According to Santa Barbara County Sheriff records, Balint, a Long Beach resident, was involved in another inter-agency chase outside of Carpenteria in 2010. The Santa Barbara Independent reported at the time that Balint had stolen an ex-girlfriend’s car outside of a grocery store and fled from deputies that were attempting to pull him over.

Helicopters from both the Santa Barbara Sheriff’s Office and the Ventura Sheriff’s Office were soon called in to help in the pursuit. Just as the California Highway Patrol was joining the chase, Balint reportedly veered the Jeep across two southbound lanes and continued off the right side of the road, careening 100 yards down an embankment into heavy brush. The crash knocked the driver unconscious and, due to damage to the vehicle, authorities had to pull Balint through the car’s rear window.

Balint was charged with robbery, vehicle theft, evading with wanton disregard for safety, driving without a license and domestic violence. It is unclear if he served jail time or when he returned to Long Beach following the 2010 incident.

ORIGINAL 4:01PM WEDNESDAY | An unidentified man was shot and killed in a Carson neighborhood by Long Beach police early Wednesday morning at the end of a running gun fight that began at a nearby gas station.

The man died at 3:15AM in the 20000 block of Hillford Avenue, where he was attempting to break into an occupied residence. It is unclear if the man fired at officers at the home, but police say he had been shooting at several units at a nearby park and before at the Arco station before he ran into the neiborhood.

The incident began when a Long Beach police patrol car was flagged down at around 2:30AM at the intersection of Pacific Coast Highway and Long Beach Boulevard by a woman who said an armed man had made death threats against her and her family, said LBPD Deputy Chief Robert Luna, adding that the man may have been the woman’s ex-boyfriend.

A Los Angeles Police Department air unit was called in to assist LBPD in the search for the man and located someone believed to be the suspect at a gas station at the intersection of Del Amo Boulevard and Central Avenue in Carson, Luna said.

The suspect began firing at the first Long Beach units to roll up, prompting an exchange of gunfire. The suspect then reportedly fled through nearby Dr. Thomas G. Mills Memorial Park, where more shots were fired, Luna said. After running into the residential neighborhood, the man tried to break into the residence on Hillford Ave., where he was shot and killed by police.

No officers were hurt. A handgun was recovered at the scene.

On Saturday, Long Beach police were involved in another shooting with an armed suspect. In that incident, the suspect had violated a restraining order, broken into a garage in Belmont Shore and retreived a handgun which he was pointing at officers when he was shot. The suspect, 49 year-old Greg Treadway, is in stable condition.

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