Wild Chase, Carjacking On Highway 24 In Orinda Saturday
A man believed to have been at the wheel of an allegedly stolen pickup truck led Lamorinda police on a circuitous pursuit along Highway 24 Saturday, ramming a Lafayette police car before carjacking a second vehicle and fleeing the scene of that crash.
The suspect, believed to be at the wheel of a second car commandeered on Highway 24 near Fish Ranch Road, is currently fleeing westward and is the object of a widespread search in Oakland.
We have no word on injuries but the driver was fleeing at high speed the wrong way on the freeway for some time before crashing.
We’ll update this story as we get additional details.
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Not the typical activity expected in the Lamorinda “bubble”. Hope there were no injuries.
Local papers list the alleged perp as Victor Topete, 28, who is believed to have family in Pittsburg.
Mercury News states charges include “assault with a deadly weapon, three counts of attempted assault with a deadly weapon, resisting arrest, carjacking and attempted carjacking, evading arrest, reckless driving, probation violations, possession of stolen property, and felony hit-and-run.”
Google reveals a Victor Topete is also charged with murder in Clovis about a year ago, also around 28 years old. Same alleged perp? Out on bail?
Regarding the previous poster, shouldn’t we have more safe “bubbles”? Antioch used to be safe.
Just got through rereading all your flashes. Pretty crazy.
(Edit)It was, B. We understand there’s an archive of Flashes being built!
Enjoyed the arrest photo.
Any more highways getting blockaded tomorrow?
Not that we’re aware of, Nicky!
In March of 2019 this guy was sentenced to 6 yrs and 4 months for a series of counts relating to burglary, fleeing police, resisting arrest etc. One year later he’s killed a man and gone on this crazy car chase bender. Hard to do that from a prison cell. Oh wait.
Seems like such a nice law abiding young man. The marihoochie chest tat was the giveaway for me.