Guillermo Medina Reyes, a San Jose tattoo artist who has previously been at the center of a high-profile deportation fight, now faces multiple criminal charges after a string of incidents occurred in Berkeley, including attempted carjackings and a physical altercation. According to a report by KRON4, Reyes, who is 31 and a native of Mexico, allegedly assaulted a vehicle's passenger-side window during an attempted carjacking at the intersection of San Pablo Avenue and Jones Street.
As a former convict of attempted murder, Reyes had become a sort of cause célèbre for immigration rights activists who see him facing ICE deportation as a consequence of his activism rather than his past crimes. In a legal battle to remain in the United States, Reyes received an extension to a restraining order protecting him from ICE custody on July 15 after public rallying and the outcry from his supporters, but his circumstances spiraled into turmoil with the recent events, including the Berkeley incident where he purportedly attempted to steal several vehicles along a commercial strip now stands charged with multiple felonies, including carjacking vehicle theft and grand theft.
Reyes's alleged crime spree began when he alerted police to a woman's screams in a vacant house in Berkeley, which led to them discovering him with hand lacerations, but the situation escalated hours later. Detailed in an article by NBC Bay Area, Reyes was identified as the shirtless man who allegedly tried to carjack a big-rig hauling several vehicles, assaulted a café kitchen, stole a handheld radio from a rental car agency, attempted to drive off with a Prius with a toddler in the back seat, and fought with a 70-year-old woman at a gas station.
In the aftermath, fire officials intervened, and Reyes was given Narcan before being detained, cited as "combative and altered" by authorities.
