Good Samaritans helped police in Richmond apprehend a gun-toting dog thief they’d been pursuing late Monday afternoon, police said.
The incident unfolded at about 4:10 p.m., when an officer was flagged down about a shooting at the entrance of Rolling Hills Memorial Park, police said.
According to the victim, who wasn’t injured, the suspect had reportedly stolen his dog from the 3900 block of Garden Road and fled in a waiting vehicle. The dog owner pursued the suspects in his Chevy truck and rammed the car near Rolling Hills Memorial Park, police said. “The suspect shot at the Chevy truck so the victim abandoned his truck and the suspect used [the truck] to flee from the scene,” police said.
The officer pursued the suspect on I-80 to the Pinole Valley Road exit, where the suspect fled from the stolen truck. After police located the suspect with help from a CHP airplane, he fled on foot, weaving between cars underneath the freeway overpass and running up the westbound off-ramp to Pinole Valley Road, where he attempted to carjack a vehicle, police said.
“The victim [of the attempted carjacking] resisted and the suspect attempted to drive away while seated on the woman’s lap,” police said. “Other motorists came to the woman’s aid by blocking in the suspect and physically detaining him until officers arrived on scene.”
Police added, “Officers located a firearm that had been discarded along the suspect’s flight path, discovered the suspect’s abandoned car near the cemetery was reported stolen from San Bruno, and reunited the stolen dog with its owner.”
The suspect’s identity wasn’t immediately known.
