Man found guilty of trying to kill officers

A 28-year-old Antioch man who shot a cop in the head is facing a life sentence after a jury found him guilty of attempting to murder two police officers following a three-day crime spree, the Contra Costa County district attorney’s office said Friday.

In addition to attempted murder charges, Mario Serrano was found guilty Wednesday of assault with a firearm of a peace officer, vandalism, arson of a property, firstdegree residential burglary, petty theft, driving or taking a vehicle without consent, carjacking and shooting at an inhabited dwelling. He also faced enhancements with each charge.

Serrano’s crime spree began May 2, 2016, when he went to a McDonald’s where his exgirlfriend worked and used a lug wrench to smash the front doors of the establishment.

“He became convinced that his girlfriend was cheating on him, and so he lashed out,” said Kevin Bell, the deputy district attorney in the case. “I don’t really know what his ultimate goal was in some of this stuff.”

After smashing the windows, Serrano went to the Mt. Diablo Landscape Center on the Pittsburg Antioch Highway, doused his girlfriend’s car in gasoline and set it on fire, prosecutors said.

“He told officers he didn’t want another man to drive the car,” Bell said.

Between May 2 and May 4, Serrano broke into an unoccupied home in a rural area of unincorporated Clayton, where he nailed the doors and windows on the first floor of the house shut and created what appeared to be a “sniper’s nest” inside the house. The lookout was created in the interior balcony of the home so it had a view of the front door and gave him a “position of cover to shoot from,” Bell said.

Serrano then stole a truck and shotgun from the home, before returning to the McDonald’s where his ex-girlfriend worked at about 10:30 a.m. on May 4. Once outside the restaurant, he fired four shots, one of which went into the Children’s Playland.

No children were in the playground and no one was injured in the shooting.

“I think he was trying to get her to lose her job,” Bell said.

A man who was behind Serrano at the drive-thru of the fast-food restaurant caught the shooting on his dashcam.

Serrano proceeded to drive to his ex-girlfriend’s cousin’s home in Pittsburg and used the same shotgun to fire a bullet through the window. He then carjacked a BMW from a group of high school students because the truck he had was running out of gas, Bell said.

Police started to pursue him as he drove back to Antioch in the stolen BMW.

Serrano eventually crashed into an SUV at the intersection of Loveridge Road and East Leland Road in Pittsburg.

He then got out of his car, grabbed his shotgun and set up “a shooting position,” said Scott Alonso, a spokesman for the district attorney’s office.

Officers Thomas Smith and Scott Duggar were pursuing Serrano in separate patrol cars when they were met with gunfire, leading to a shootout.

Smith was hit in the head with a “birdshot” — the smallest size of bullet for shotguns — and was severely injured.

Duggar was not injured in the shooting and neither was Serrano.

The shooting ended when Serrano ran out of ammunition. He will be sentenced April 12.