Four teens involved in violent double carjacking, knives involved: Alameda County sheriff
CASTRO VALLEY, Calif. (KTVU) - Two teens are in custody and two are on the run following a violent double carjacking across two cities early Friday morning where a gas line was ruptured, a mother and 11-year-old daughter were threatened and another victim was stabbed in San Leandro, according to the Alameda County Sheriff's Office.
Sgt. Ray Kelly credited good police work in capturing the suspects in what he described as a dangerous series of events.
The teens in custody are boys, ages 16 and 17, Kelly said. He added that he believes the outstanding suspects - the drivers - are also in their teens.
Kelly described a wild "carjacking spree" that was first reported at 11:55 p.m. in San Leandro.
San Leandro Police Lt. Isaac Benabout said that four teens went up to a 21-year-old man talking on his cell phone in his car, and broke his car window to get him out. Somehow, the man ended up getting stabbed in the leg, and the suspects took off, leaving him with his phone.
All four took off.
Then, 30 minutes later, another the suspects went to the 4800 block of Seven Hills Road in Castro Valley. There, they threatened a mother at gunpoint, Kelly said. She struggled with them and refused to give them her car until her daughter, 11, came outside. They eyed her, she told police, and she ultimately gave up the keys to her car. "She did the right thing," Kelly said, "and protected her daughter."
Those suspects also took off again, this time in two separate stolen cars.
An all-points bulletin went out and police throughout the East Bay began looking for both suspect vehicles.
An officer spotted both cars driving together near James Avenue and Brickwell Way and gave chase to the car that was stolen in Castro Valley. Police say that car led the officer on a 12-mile, high-speed pursuit and ultimately ended up crashing into a fence in San Leandro.
About the same time, the other carjacked vehicle ended up crashing into a home on Parsons Avenue in Castro Valley, where two elderly women live. The car slammed into their house, cutting their gas and electricity lines, Kelly said. The women, fortunately, were rattled but not hurt. One of the suspects was arrested after colliding into this house, but police are searching for the driver.
Neighbor Dean Elder heard the car slam into his neighbors' home. "I heard the sirens. My wife really started screaming."
"It was pretty surreal," Elder added. "You don't expect that when you wake up in the middle of the night."
A man who didn’t want to be identified said his wife was the carjacking victim in Castro Valley. The incident happened in the driveway of their home. The man said his wife had just returned home with their four children. The children had made it inside the home, but his wife was still outside and put up a fight when the suspects demanded her keys. She ultimately handed over the keys.
“She just wanted to give the keys because she realized our child was standing there,” the man said.
“I’m glad she did because at the time she was telling me that one of them saying to ‘go ahead and stab her’ and the other one was talking about shooting her.”
He said they had just bought their car two weeks ago.
“Even though the car is totaled, I’m just glad they caught them,” he said. “It’s a quiet neighborhood and to have something like this happen is traumatic.”
KTVU's Cristina Rendon contributed to this report.