"...seen by a helicopter..."
He wasn’t accidentally seen by a helicopter, a police helicopter caught up to him, as police were chasing him.
With current LE camera technology you can see that kind of activity from 3-5 thousand feet. If somebody called in a car prowl it is plausible that they were able to detect him.
I saw the video on the news. The helicopter was tracking him on FLIR. The perp could clearly be seen. The officers in pursuit were in dark allies or back yards and having to use flashlights to see. Tough and scary situation to be in tactically, and dangerous had the perp actually been armed. It’s very easy to have your adrenaline up when you’ve already been in pursuit. This was not a repeat of the Vegas Costco shooting. I can see how the officers might have been in fear of life had the misidentified cell phone been a gun. That said, it didn’t look good that the cops muted the cameras.
All those helicopters have high resolution, image-stabilized cameras on them.
They can see you so clearly that the zits on your face would stand out.