4 teens arrested in armed carjacking near downtown
SAN JOSE >> Four teens arrested in a string of carjackings earlier this year were back in police custody this past weekend in another alleged carjacking after a frenzied chase, according to San Jose police.
The arrests were made early Sunday morning, after officers responded to a report of an armed carjacking near downtown San Jose.
A man told investigators that he was sitting inside his parked car near South Seventh Street and East Reed Street when four males wearing surgical masks walked up and, at gunpoint, demanded he give up his car and unspecified personal property.
The man told police he gave them the car and the men drove off in it. Officers searching the area spotted the stolen car, and the occupants “fled at a high rate of speed.” Police eventually ended the chase for safety reasons.
But a police helicopter located the vehicle again and followed it as the driver lost control and crashed the car into a center median near Coleman Avenue and Highway 87 — which incidentally is not far from the Police Department and county Main Jail.
Police said the driver got out and ran but was caught and arrested; the other three occupants also were arrested at the scene. Police said officers also recovered a loaded ghost gun — a privately made firearm that is difficult or impossible to trace — from the vehicle.
The suspects were all boys ages 17, 15, 15 and 14, police said, adding that three were on probation and one had an ankle monitor when Sunday's events unfolded, as a result of their March arrests in other alleged carjackings, Their identities have been withheld because they are minors.
Anyone with information about Sunday's incident can contact Detective Annania Marte by email at 4621@ sanjoseca.gov or at 408-2774166. Tips also can be left with Silicon Valley Crime Stoppers at 408-947-7867 or at svcrimestoppers.org.