Salinas police arrest car burglary suspect in shopping center
UPDATE 10/10/16 7:40 P.M.: A car burglary suspect who led police on a chase from Marina to Salinas is now in jail.
According to Salinas Police, Evan Smith-Sweeney was caught in the area of South Main Street in Salinas late Monday afternoon.Police said a resident saw a man jumping over a neighbor’s fence on Coleridge Drive around 4:30 p.m. and the man matched the description of Smith-Sweeney. A second person then reported a man jumping his fence and taking a bicycle from his yard on Dickens Drive. Officers searching the area later saw Smith-Sweeney walking near Star Shopping Center. An officer tried to make contact and the suspect took off on foot.
Smith-Sweeney ran through the shopping center and into O’Reilly Automotive where the officer tried using a Taser on the suspect, but was unsuccessful. Smith-Sweeney ran out the back door and other officers were waiting for him.
One of the officers tried using the Taser again and Smith-Sweeney was taken into custody.
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UPDATED 10/10/16 6 P.M.:
Police continue to look for a burglary suspect who evaded officers after a high speed chase that started in Marina and ended in Salinas.
It all started around 7 a.m. Monday when an off-duty sheriff’s deputy reported someone breaking into his private vehicle parked near Carmel Avenue in Marina, according to Commander Bob Nolan with the Marina Police Dept.
The suspect ran from the off-duty officer and a neighbor, hopped fences and got away in a truck parked nearby.
Marina Police were called to the area and located the getaway pick-up truck. Officers pursued the suspect through east Marina, onto Reservation Road to Davis Road, then through residential neighborhoods in southwest Salinas. The suspect made his way to Blanco Road, crashing the truck into a residential garage on La Jolla Circle and then ran off, according to Commander Nolan.
“Thank goodness we didn’t have a lot of traffic at that hour,” added Commander Nolan.
The suspect is described as a slim built male in his late twenties to early thirties, about 6’2″, with long hair in a pony tail. He was last seen wearing dark shorts and a white t-shirt with an emblem on the back.
Officers from Marina Police Dept., the Monterey County Sheriff’s Department, CHP and the Salinas Police Dept. set up a perimeter and searched for the suspect, but he managed to evade officers.
“We’re confident we’ll be able to find the suspect,” said Commander Nolan, noting the investigation continues into the getaway pick-up truck, an unreported stolen vehicle from the Spreckles/Las Palmas area of south Salinas.
