CHULA VISTA -- A two-hour police standoff in Chula Vista with a robbery suspect who claimed to have a bomb ended with the suspect's arrest Thursday.

The man -- identified as 42-year-old Robert Jiminez -- allegedly led officers on a chase from San Ysidro to Chula Vista before pulling over and refusing to surrender.

The pursuit began about 11:40 a.m., a few minutes after a man robbed a Washington Mutual office in the 400 block of West San Ysidro Boulevard while threatening to detonate an explosive device, according to San Diego police.

Jiminez allegedly fled to the north at high speed in a red Ford Explorer, driving on the wrong side of roads at times and getting into several collisions.

As an SDPD helicopter and ground units tailed the fleeing man, he sped along Industrial Boulevard, then turned onto Palomar Street and continued to the west a short distance before turning onto Trenton Avenue, a dead-end street, and pulling into a parking lot.

Officers surrounded the area and ordered the Jiminez to surrender. He refused, staying inside the parked SUV, threatening to detonate his supposed bomb and saying police would "have to kill him," according to police.

Authorities cleared people out of the immediate area, shut down nearby streets and called in a SWAT team to take positions around the parking lot where Jiminez was cornered.

At one point, a police sniper saw the suspect holding a cell phone in one hand and a pepper-spray can in the other, SDPD Detective Gary Hassen said.

Shortly after 2 p.m., an officer fired several "pepper balls" -- non-lethal projectiles that explode into a caustic chemical cloud similar to pepper spray -- into the SUV, and one struck Jiminez in the chest.

He then surrendered without further incident. Officers took him to a hospital for an evaluation before transporting him to county jail for booking on various charges.

Jiminez had no bomb on his person or in the Explorer, police said.

The suspect also was believed to be responsible for a second bank holdup that occurred within minutes of the Washington Mutual heist and a short distance away on the same street.