A Victorville man who tried to chase down the men who robbed him of jewelry and cash got more than he bargained for Tuesday night, when deputies say one of the suspects leaned out of the fleeing vehicle and fired a gun in his direction. The pursuit that followed ended in a crash, four arrests, and one suspect still on the run.
San Bernardino County sheriff's deputies responded to a robbery report near Nisqualli Road and Third Avenue at about 9:25 p.m. on November 10, according to VVNG. The victim told deputies that five male suspects had approached him and taken jewelry and cash from his pocket, and he followed them in his own vehicle in an attempt to recover his belongings.
That's when, per the outlet's report, one of the suspects leaned out of the vehicle and fired a gun toward the victim. Deputies then attempted to stop the suspect vehicle, but the driver failed to pull over, triggering a pursuit that lasted only a short distance before the vehicle crashed near Ridgecrest Road and Dayton Street.
Suspects Scattered, One Tossed a Gun Mid-Chase
After the crash, all five suspects ran from the vehicle in different directions, the report states. During the foot pursuit, one teenager allegedly threw a firearm from his waistband into a home's backyard; deputies later recovered that firearm from the home's back patio, the same account notes.
Deputies ultimately took four of the five suspects into custody. The fifth suspect remained at large after fleeing the vehicle, and the sheriff's department did not say whether the victim was injured during the encounter, the article adds.
Two Men Face Serious Charges, Two Teens Sent to Juvenile Hall
Akeem Declouet, 20, was arrested on suspicion of conspiracy and robbery, while 21-year-old Joseph Anderson was arrested on suspicion of conspiracy, robbery, and attempted murder, the same report states. Both men were booked into the High Desert Detention Center, and two 17-year-old boys were booked into Juvenile Hall.
The incident adds to a string of robberies reported around Victorville this year. In April, a resident selling clothing out of a garage was robbed at gunpoint when one man held the victim at gunpoint while another made off with several thousand dollars worth of merchandise, according to the Victor Valley Daily Press. In a separate case on the same Third Avenue corridor, a 20-year-old man told the paper that four men emerged from a car, two of them carrying handguns, and hit him in the head with a firearm before stealing his phone and cash, as the Daily Press reported on that incident. Hoodline previously covered a separate Shell station armed robbery in the city involving two male juveniles and a driver accused of pointing a firearm at a clerk.
As of Wednesday's report, the fifth suspect from the Nisqualli Road robbery had not been located, and no further details on the juvenile suspects' case had been released.
