Rio Vista police officers arrested two men suspected of a late-May kidnapping of a man in Vacaville and then shooting at him in rural Solano County, but the Rio Vista police chief, citing most of the information as “confidential and sensitive” to protect the integrity of the ongoing investigation, released only basic details of the alleged crimes.
In a social media post late Friday, Police Chief Jon Mazer said the Solano County Sheriff’s Office on May 31 received a report that a man was kidnapped at gunpoint in Vacaville, forced to drive to a remote site in unincorporated Solano County, assaulted, and “shot at.”
Deputies arrived and verified an assault and shooting had occurred, and the victim, whom Mazer did not identify, was transported to an area hospital, but Mazer did not indicate if the victim was actually wounded during the shooting and treated for injuries.
His department’s officers, in contact with Sheriff patrol deputies at the time, had instant information about the call.
A Rio Vista officers spotted a vehicle matching the suspect vehicle, a distinctive yellow SUV, driving in town from the direction of the Sheriff’s investigation, Mazer wrote in the prepared statement.
The officer followed the vehicle as it turned from Main Street onto North Sixth Street. As the SUV entered the elbow turn, the officer activated his red-and-blue lights in an attempt to stop the vehicle.
But the SUV drove through the intersection of North Sixth and North Fifth streets, “which was the officer’s first indication that the driver did not intend to yield,” Mazer wrote.
The suspect vehicle began to accelerate as it approached the intersection of Logan Street and North Third at Crescent Drive, failing to stop at the stop sign. A group of young children were in the area, and the suspect vehicle came close to hitting one or more of them, “but vigilant parents were already getting their children out of the way when they heard the siren approaching.”
The suspect vehicle hit a puppy on the road, however. Based upon video obtained from the pursuing officer’s windshield-mounted camera and Google Earth measuring tools, the distance between the pursuing police car and the suspects’ vehicle at the time of the impact on the puppy was more than 110 feet.
“An officer who allows that much space between them and such serious suspects does so to minimize the pressure on the suspect to drive recklessly,” noted Mazer.
The suspect vehicle continued to flee, ultimately crashing into the trees along River Road, having failed to slow down when turning sufficiently from North Front Street The entire pursuit of the suspect vehicle lasted 48 seconds and was just over one-half mile, he added.
Rio Vista officers set up a perimeter and coordinated with incoming units Solano County Sheriff’s Office patrol deputies, CHP ground units, and a CHP helicopter, which responded to assist but were responding from far away.
Mazer said “two dangerous suspects were captured and multiple firearms believed to be involved” were saved as evidence.
The puppy was injured and “children and adult pedestrians were traumatized by the fleeing suspected felons who hit their dog while being pursued by police. The children and puppy, ‘Bentley,’ are all recovering from this unfortunate event,” wrote Mazer.
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