Man accused of killing brother, carjacking two others in San Joaquin County
By Web Staff
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LATHROP, California (KCRA) — A man was arrested after killing a family member then carjacking two others as part of a roughly two-hour-long crime spree in San Joaquin County on Monday, the sheriff’s office said. The family tells KCRA 3 the man who died was shot by his brother.
A relative says the older brother went to the home to check on the suspect, who had been paranoid and acting erratically for some time.
“All he tried to do was help,” the relative says.
Deputies were first called to the 1300 block of Talc Street in Lathrop to investigate a homicide that happened near there, the San Joaquin County Sheriff’s Office said Monday afternoon.
Sheriff Pat Withrow said in a briefing that after the homicide the suspect drove away in a vehicle and almost successfully hid the vehicle from deputies. It is unknown if the car was his or another family members’.
The suspect was later spotted climbing over a fence to carjack a person near East Louise and McKinley avenues, Withrow said. He then carjacked a pickup truck at a truck stop in Ripon.
Withrow said the suspect drove that first pickup truck until the wheels nearly fell off then ran away on foot. He went on to assault a worker in a construction zone before taking that man’s pickup truck and fleeing. Shortly afterward, Stanislaus CHP picked up a vehicle matching the description of the second carjacked pickup along Highway 120 outside of Escalon. A pursuit ensued, and officers were able to pull the man over and take him into custody without any injuries.
“It was a very chaotic scene going from crime scene to crime scene, but being able to update each agency in the area, not just in our county but our brothers and sisters in Stanislaus County, it was just an amazing job of how law enforcement can work together and quickly resolve this. Because this could have turned into a long manhunt,” Sheriff Patrick Withrow, of San Joaquin County, says.
The suspect had been booked into the San Joaquin County Jail before multiple times, but Withrow did not specify what the past crimes were.
Withrow said the weapon used in the shooting is yet to be found.
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