Three suspects caught following drive-by shooting

Watsonville Police detain one suspect who allegedly ran from a car in the Crossroads Center following a car crash. (Photos by Tarmo Hannula).

WATSONVILLE — Three Watsonville men are in custody Monday on suspicion of taking part in a drive-by shooting at the corner of Pennsylvania and Hammer drives.

Watsonville police Sgt. Tony Magdayao said witnesses called 911 to report shots fired from a maroon compact car about 4:25 p.m.

Within minutes, officer Brad Chagnon spotted a similar vehicle being driven erratically near Watsonville Community Hospital. When Chagnon gave pursuit, a young man leapt from the car with a handgun and raced off into a wooded field between the hospital and Highway 1. As officers began setting a perimeter, police followed the vehicle as it raced southbound on Highway 1 and onto the Main Street exit.

The Mitsubishi Gallant surged southbound onto Main Street and crossed South Green Valley Road. The driver, with a male passenger, then swerved into the Crossroad Shopping Center and crashed over a planter, bursting his right front tire. The car stopped near Round Table Pizza. Both men in the Mitsubishi then fled on foot.

One man charged across Main Street toward Cilantro’s restaurant, but Watsonville police caught up with him and stopped him at gunpoint. Minutes later another officer got onto the trail of the second suspect on Quiet Meadow Lane, thanks to the aid of witnesses.

Officer Lourdes Gombos found the suspect hiding beneath a car, and she flushed him put at gunpoint.

Meanwhile Watsonville Police were aided by the California Highway Patrol and a Capitola Police officer with a K9 German shepherd on Technology Drive near Westgate Drive in search of the suspect with the gun. As they tightened their net, they spotted the young man running on a dirt trail after they made announcements over a public address system as to the threats of deploying a K9. Police and the dog rushed in and the youth was nabbed in the hospital parking lot. As of 5:30 p.m. they had not located the gun.

Kim Gonzales of Watsonville was driving her blue Prius on Highway 1, exiting at Highway 152 and approaching the intersection of Main Street and South Green Valley before 5 p.m. She was not aware that a suspect was barreling down the highway behind her.

Later, standing near the suspect's car in front of Round Table Pizza with her husband Al, Gonzales said that as she approached the intersection, she looked in her rear-view mirror and "saw the hood of that car come right at me."

The suspect's car shot between Gonzales' Prius and another car, only knocking off her driver's side mirror.

"I feel so lucky he wasn't more aggressive," she said. "That was the scariest thing that ever happened to me."

Magdayao said no one was injured in the drive-by shooting. He was unsure if the shooting was related to another drive-by shooting Sunday near the same intersection. No one was hurt in that incident. A single shot was fired at a vehicle driven by a 22-year-old driver from a car that pulled up beside the victim, shattering the rear side window.

No motive for the shooting has been found.

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