National City police arrest suspect in fatal late-night shooting of 25-year-old
NATIONAL CITY
National City police have arrested a 25-year-old suspect in a shooting that killed a man on a street behind Sweetwater High School, the department announced Friday.
John Edward Sanchez. Jr. of Spring Valley was arrested Thursday on suspicion of murder in connection with the shooting Tuesday night, police Sgt. Tom Wilkins said.
About 11:30 p.m., the victim and a woman were on a sidewalk along D Street, which runs behind the school’s football stadium, when a gunman opened fire.
The 31-year-old victim was shot several times. He was taken to a hospital, where he died about seven hours later. Police have not released his name.
Police identified Sanchez as their suspect. He was arrested shortly before 1 p.m. Thursday during a traffic stop on northbound Interstate 15 north of Rancho Bernardo, Wilkins said.
Online jail records indicate Sanchez was booked on suspicion of murder and attempted murder. Police said the victim of attempted-murder is the 34-year-old woman who was with the 31-yearold who was fatally shot when the gunman opened fire.
Sanchez remained jailed without bail Friday.
When Sanchez was arrested, police also arrested a 27-year-old woman in the vehicle with him, Wilkins said. The woman, a Spring Valley resident, was booked into custody on suspicion of harboring a fugitive and conspiracy to comlive mit a felony. She did not appear to be in custody Friday.
Motorcycle rider killed in crash in South Bay
OTAY MESA
A 29-year-old man was killed Thursday evening in Otay Mesa when he lost control of his motorcycle, crashed into two SUVs and ended up pinned underneath one of them, police said.
The wreck came about six hours after another rider was rearended and killed while stopped at a red light about a mile away. Both crashes occurred on roads surrounding Brown Field Municipal Airport.
The second crash happened about 6 p.m. when the speeding rider lost control of his 2014 Suzuki sport bike while headed south on Otay Valley Road near Datsun Street, San Diego police Officer Robert Heims said in a news release.
The motorcycle tumbled and slid, crashing into a 2019 Jeep Cherokee that was headed north on the other side of Otay Valley Road, Heims said. The rider was then struck by a 2015 Kia Sportage SUV that was behind the Jeep and ended up pinned underneath the vehicle.
He died at the scene, Heims said. The rider’s name was not immediately released.
The 30-year-old woman driving the Jeep and the 55-year-old man driving the Kia were uninjured.
Thursday’s first deadly motorcycle crash in the area happened about noon when a 42-year-old motorcyclist was rear-ended by a Ford F-150 pickup while stopped at a red light on Otay Mesa Road near Cactus Road. Police said the impact threw him off his Honda Cargo 150, and medics took him to a hospital, where he died.
Police arrest suspected robber, getaway driver
EL CAJON
Police pursued and arrested a suspected robber and his getaway driver Thursday afternoon in El Cajon after the man allegedly made off with prescription drugs from a grocery store pharmacy, police said.
Investigators are now probing whether the 22-year-old suspect might be connected to a series of robberies over the past two weeks at El Cajon pharmacies, according to El Cajon police Lt. Keith MacArthur.
Thursday’s arrests occurred after someone called police about 2:30 p.m. to report a man armed with a gun was robbing an employee at the pharmacy inside the Albertsons on Broadway and Main, MacArthur said.
Investigators would later learn the robber used a demand note, but not a gun or any other weapon.
After taking the prescription medications, the robber walked out of the store, where a police officer attempted to confront him, MacArthur said. He ran to a getaway vehicle whose driver, a woman, sped away.
Another officer spotted the vehicle and chased it southeast, under Interstate 8, until the driver stopped near Terra Lane and Naranca Avenue, MacArthur said. The driver surrendered and officers took her into custody without incident, but the robbery suspect took off running.
Officers searched for the man and eventually found and arrested him in the backyard of an occupied home, according to MacArthur.
Jail records showed he was booked Thursday into the San Diego Central Jail where he was being held in lieu of $100,000 bail on suspicion of six felonies, including four counts of robbery and one count each of attempted robbery and domestic violence.
Anyone with information on Thursday’s robbery — or its potential connection to the recent pharmacy robbery spree — was urged to call the El Cajon Police Department at (619) 579-3311.
alex.riggins@sduniontribune.com (619) 293-1010
Deputies raid large cannabis growing operation WARNER SPRINGS
Sheriff ’s deputies and other law enforcement agents raided a huge cannabis growing operation Thursday morning at a rural property north of Warner Springs, officials said.
Detectives seized nearly 1,200 plants and 64 pounds of processed cannabis, estimated to be worth nearly $1 million, while serving a warrant about 8 a.m. at the rural, secluded property on Chihuahua Valley Road east of state Route 79, according to San Diego sheriff ’s narcotics and gangs division Sgt. Mark Knierim.
“Marijuana cultivation sites such as these are often the source of products unsafe for human consumption, which are sold at illegal dispensaries in our communities,” Knierim said in a news release.
“Investigators believe the marijuana at the Warner Springs grow site was destined for unlicensed Southern California pot shops.”
Investigators from the California State Water Resources Control Board also discovered “numerous environmental-related crimes” related to the use of dangerous chemicals and illegal pesticides, according to Knierim.
The pesticides “and other hazardous materials used at unlicensed marijuana grow sites ... may enter the local ground water supply and streams, creating extreme environmental hazards,” Knierim said.
Detectives detained two men — ages 63 and 48 — at the scene who are expected to face felony charges, Knierim said.
Officers from a regional, multiagency narcotics task force joined the sheriff ’s detectives and state water board investigators in Thursday morning’s raid.