Chase that started with police shooting ends in surrender
Authorities: Man dragged officer with car before SWAT team arrived
An early Monday confrontation in San Ramon, in which police reportedly fired at a man who dragged an officer with his car, led to a cross-Bay Area chase that ended with the suspect surrendering to a SWAT team near Los Altos, authorities said.
No one was hit by the police gunfire, and the officer who was dragged suffered minor injuries, according to a tweet from San Ramon police.
It was just after midnight when San Ramon police say officers were trying to stop a person driving a vehicle with a stolen license plate on it, and the driver fled. But in doing so, the driver hit and dragged an approaching officer, prompting another officer to open fire at the driver and the car, which appeared to be a dark- colored newermodel Toyota Camry.
Officers chased the Camry south from San Ramon for nearly 30 miles to Milpitas, where at Interstate 680 and Montague Expressway the California Highway Patrol took over the pursuit, authorities said. For reasons not immediately clear, CHP officers ended their pursuit soon after for safety reasons or lost sight of the suspect and his car.
But Santa Clara County Sheriff’ s deputies were among the local law enforcement notified about the chase, and around 12:35 a. m., a patrol sergeant spotted a vehicle matching the Camr y near Stevens Creek and Nor th De A nza boulevards in Cupertino, said sheriff ’s spokesperson Sgt. Michael Low.
Low said the patrol sergeant and eventually other deputies tried to stop and then chased the Camry about three miles to the underpass beneath Interstate 280 at North Foothill Boulevard, where the Camry came to a stop due to some kind of mechanical failure.
Deputies ordered the suspect out of the car, but he refused, and a lengthy standoff ensued. A SWAT team was later called out, and they used armored vehicles to box in the Camry and keep the driver from escaping, Low said.
Around 3:30 a.m., the man inside the car surrendered, and was taken into custody. Low said deputies kept the man at the scene until San Ramon police of ficers arrived to take him. No injuries were reported from the Santa Clara County portion of the pursuit or the standoff.
The suspect was identified as 48-year- old Stockton resident Sandy Lyons, according to San Ramon police, who added that the Camry was stolen from an Oakland auto dealership but that the theft had not been reported. Lyons was booked into Contra Costa County jail on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon on a police officer, resisting a police officer, felony evading, and a probation violation.