Right Place, Wrong Crime

The sound of a single gunshot startled residents of La Mirage, a community of apartments and townhomes overlooking Mission Valley, at approximately 1:15 a.m. on Thursday, July 30. The gunshot had reportedly come from a covered parking garage on Ambrosia Drive.

As San Diego police appeared on the scene, police radio chatter confirmed that a gun had been fired — a U.S. customs agent leaving for work had come upon two males attempting to break into a car. As he attempted to stop the would-be thieves, one tried to run over the officer. The officer fired a round at the driver, who was taken into custody. The other suspect managed to flee the scene. No one was injured.

Police began a search for the accomplice in the parking garage. An officer remarked that there are “...over a [dozen] parking garages he could be hiding in.”

After initially refusing to talk, the suspect in custody revealed his accomplice’s name. Some officers immediately recognized the name and one referred to him as a “well-known prolific car burglar” over police radio.

Police units were sent to the accomplice’s parents’ residence in Mira Mesa to check on his whereabouts. He was not there. As police continued their search for the suspect in La Mirage’s several parking garages, other units were on alert to keep an eye out in the area downhill from the residential community.

At approximately 2:30 a.m., an officer reported detaining a young male matching the fugitive’s description near McGregor’s Grill, just over a mile from the scene of the incident. The young man was positively identified as the suspect and taken into custody. It was also discovered that the suspect is on probation for receiving stolen property and burglary.