Gilroy
– Police arrested a San Leandro man who crashed a stolen car and
tried to flee from officers in the Gilroy Crossing shopping center
at U.S. Highways 101 and 152 Saturday afternoon, police said.
Gilroy – Police arrested a San Leandro man who crashed a stolen car and tried to flee from officers in the Gilroy Crossing shopping center at U.S. Highways 101 and 152 Saturday afternoon, police said.
Vaquinho Bettencourt, 20, was driving northbound on 101 near the Tenth Street exit when he lost control of a 1994 Honda Civic that was reported stolen out of Oakland, according to a California Highway Patrol report. He had been driving in a reckless manner at a high rate of speed, the CHP said.
His car veered across the northbound lanes, across the shoulder, and through a fence around the Target store parking lot. In the process, Bettencourt struck a 2003 Lexus RX300, also traveling northbound.
A 50-year-old San Francisco man suffered minor neck injuries, CHP said.
“(Bettencourt) fled on foot, and apparently, the surveillance camera in Target caught him running through the parking lot,” CHP Officer Matt Ramirez said.
Gilroy police responded to calls from the CHP and found Bettencourt near a gas station at the entrance to the shopping center.
He was booked into county jail on suspicion of three felony counts: Hit-and-run causing injury, possession of a stolen property and possession of a stolen vehicle.
