Suspect arrested after ramming police car

MILPITAS >> A burglary suspect suspected of cutting off power to homes he targeted was arrested this week, but not after he rammed a police car in his haste to escape capture, according to Milpitas police.

Lukus James Phillips, 43, of Milpitas, has been booked into the Elmwood men’s jail on $100,000 bail on suspicion of two counts of residential burglary, assault with a deadly weapon on a police officer, and resisting arrest.

The first case linked to Phillips was reported just before 2 a.m. Feb. 6 involving a home in the 600 block of Berkshire Place. Milpitas police said the intruder “turned off power to the residence” beforehand.

A similar instance was reported three weeks later, around 3:45 a.m. Feb. 27, when an intruder also cut power to a home in the 1100 block of Eagle Ridge Way and entered through an unlocked door. But the homeowner confronted the suspect, who then ran off.

Police say they found some video footage of the burglar on nearby home-security camera, helping them produce a vehicle description, but the suspect could not be immediately identified. That was until a midnight-shift patrol officer recognized the vehicle, from a police call reporting a suspicious car on Ethyl Court.

Using that link, detectives identified Phillips as a suspect in the burglaries and obtained an arrest warrant for him. Tuesday, an officer with the Milpitas police Crime Reduction Team spotted a 2003 Mitsubishi Montero associated with Phillips in the 300 block of Junipero Drive.

Anyone with information about the case can contact the Milpitas Police Department at 408-586-2400, or leave an anonymous tip at 408-586-2500 or at ci.milpitas.ca.gov/crimetip