A parolee who fled Gilroy police dove under a Morgan Hill mobile
home and hid there five hours, surrounded by a growing crowd of
Sheriff’s deputies, a barking police dog and officers from Morgan
Hill and Gilroy, police said.
Gilroy – A parolee who fled Gilroy police dove under a Morgan Hill mobile home and hid there five hours, surrounded by a growing crowd of Sheriff’s deputies, a barking police dog and officers from Morgan Hill and Gilroy, police said.
Gerardo Ortiz, 24, finally came out just before 11pm Thursday, after police deployed pepper-balls, powdery projectiles that act similar to pepper spray, underneath the mobile home.
Ortiz was under surveillance in San Martin by Gilroy’s Anti-Crime Team, which targets gangs, when he spotted officers and fled.
The Gilroy man ducked underneath the home at 15425 Foothill Ave., and remained there for five hours, refusing to leave despite the sizable crowd of officers surrounding him. The crawlspace was too small for police dogs to enter, Gilroy Police Sgt. John Sheedy explained.
Police used pepper-balls to flush Ortiz out, then arrested him on an outstanding warrant for a parole violation. Ortiz also had an Immigration and Naturalization Services hold.
A man by the same name, of the same age, was arrested in April 2003 on suspicion of attempted murder, after a gang-related stabbing near Pacheco Pass Highway.
Police could not confirm if the man was the same Gerardo Ortiz. In 2003, the man was described by police as a Sureño gang member.
He is being held in the county’s main jail without bail.
