Authorities arrested a Davis carjacking suspect Monday night following a four-hour search that ended in a corn field east of town.
Davis police Lt. Glenn Glasgow said the man, whose name had not yet been confirmed as of late Monday night, allegedly used force to steal a Honda Pilot in the parking lot of the Taco Bell restaurant on Chiles Road.
The ordeal began at about 1:30 p.m., when an officer patrolling the Motel 6 parking lot conducted a registration check of another vehicle — also a Honda Pilot — and discovered the vehicle may have been stolen.
A man was in the vicinity of the vehicle at the time, and “upon seeing the officer he fled on foot,” Glasgow said. The officer gave chase in his car, traveling less than a block before being flagged down by citizens who reported the carjacking.
Glasgow said the suspect had stolen the second Honda from a woman — who was not physically injured — before heading eastbound on Chiles Road. When he reached the Yolo Bypass area, the suspect headed southbound on a gravel levee road.
The officer followed, but “due to the condition of the roadway the officer had to slow down and ultimately lost sight of the vehicle,” Glasgow said. The carjacked Honda was found abandoned in the area of county roads 106 and 38, triggering a multiagency search involving Davis police, the Yolo and Solano County sheriff’s departments, the California Highway Patrol and the state Department of Fish and Game.
A CHP helicopter crew spotted the suspect lying in a corn field at about 5:50 p.m., and he was apprehended by a police K-9 after refusing surrender commands, according to Glasglow.
After receiving medical treatment for dog bites at the scene, the man was lodged at the Yolo County Jail on suspicion of carjacking, evading, resisting arrest and possession of a stolen vehicle, Glasgow said.
Investigators believe the man had been staying at the Motel 6, where officers waiting to conduct a search arrested a woman to tried to gain access to the motel room at about 7 p.m., Glasgow said. Sara Lee Mathews, 39, was taken into custody on a no-bail warrant out of Arkansas.
— Reach Lauren Keene at lkeene@davisenterprise.net or (530) 747-8048. Follow her on Twitter @laurenkeene