A stolen green Toyota Corolla with a dog trapped inside tore through Sacramento County at nearly 95 mph on Wednesday afternoon, triggering a dangerous pursuit that ended with a PIT maneuver, a police K-9 takedown and three people taken to a hospital. The chase began after a license-plate camera flagged the car on Elkhorn Boulevard, setting off a chain of events that included a collision with a civilian vehicle and a suspect allegedly aiming his car at a California Highway Patrol officer.
According to the Sacramento Sheriff
, North Patrol deputies received an alert at around 1:55 p.m. Wednesday from a Flock license-plate-recognition camera showing the stolen Corolla traveling on Elkhorn Boulevard. The car had been reported stolen out of the Auburn area a day earlier, on October 13, with a dog left inside the vehicle at the time it was taken.
Deputies found the Corolla occupied by a female driver and a male passenger. As deputies attempted to pull the car over, the occupants swapped seats. The driver was later identified as 38-year-old David Brocker, who authorities say fled the attempted stop, steered into oncoming traffic and reached speeds of approximately 95 mph as deputies tried to catch up.
Collision, Then a Charge at a CHP Officer
The pursuit escalated quickly from there. Per the Sheriff's account, Brocker accelerated toward an assisting California Highway Patrol officer. A sheriff's deputy used a patrol vehicle to strike the suspect's car, a move the department says prevented Brocker from striking the CHP officer.
Deputies ultimately performed a PIT maneuver, but Brocker continued trying to escape, reversing into a civilian's vehicle before deputies blocked the Corolla, the Sheriff's Office says. He then exited and tried to run on foot. He was apprehended with help from Sacramento Police Department K-9 Buster. Both Brocker and 19-year-old passenger Givanna Ybarra were taken to a hospital for treatment, according to the same account from the Sheriff's Office.
Dog Found Unharmed, Charges Pending
At the end of the pursuit, deputies located the dog that had been inside the stolen Corolla and reported it was unharmed. Brocker is expected to face charges including possession of a stolen vehicle, assault with a deadly weapon, felony evading, animal cruelty, theft of the dog, resisting arrest, and a parole hold, the Sheriff's Office says. Ybarra was to be booked on a charge of possession of a stolen vehicle.
Wednesday's chase echoes another pursuit that ended with a Sacramento County sheriff's K-9 helping take a suspect into custody. In that case, reported by The Sacramento Bee, officers tried to stop a vehicle near Seventh and J streets after spotting reckless driving downtown; that chase ended near Sutterville Road and 24th Street around 1:20 a.m. on September 5, with the suspect taken into custody.
Behind the Flock Alert: Limited Public Oversight
The Flock camera network that flagged Wednesday's stolen Corolla is part of a broader system used across the region, with agencies in Sacramento County, Elk Grove, Folsom, Galt, Yolo County and Placer County all deploying the automated license-plate readers, according to The OBSERVER. The Sacramento County Sheriff's Office has installed at least several dozen of the cameras throughout unincorporated parts of the county, the outlet reports.
Unlike some neighboring agencies, the Sheriff's Office does not operate a public transparency portal for its Flock camera use, the same reporting notes. Records reviewed by the outlet showed that the reasons deputies entered for individual searches were redacted, even though those searches were capable of reaching hundreds of Flock networks at once. In Elk Grove alone, more than 3,600 organizations made over 8.3 million searches of license-plate data between 2021 and March 2026, per the outlet's review.
Vehicle theft remains a persistent issue statewide, though recent trends point downward. The California Highway Patrol has reported that an average of one vehicle was stolen in California roughly every four minutes in 2025, with 133,372 vehicles stolen statewide and 84% eventually recovered.
