A pair of Compton residents both aged 27 were arrested Saturday, Nov. 24, after carjacking a Honda Civic in front of Santa Monica Police Department officers on patrol.
At 6:16 p.m., the officers were stopped in the left turn lane to go eastbound on Pico Boulevard from Cloverfield Boulevard when they noticed a Honda Civic suddenly accelerate away from its parking space on the south curb of Pico Boulevard, proceed eastbound, and run the red light at Cloverfield Boulevard.
The officers also noted a woman who appeared to fall out from the vehicle as it sped away.
The officers conducted a traffic stop on the vehicle in the 2400 block of Pico Boulevard, but before they had a chance to speak with the occupants, the woman who had fallen from the vehicle approached them to tell the officers that it was her vehicle and that the two occupants had just car-jacked her.
The officers went into the “high-risk traffic stop” mode (during a high-risk traffic stop the officers will typically have their weapons drawn, and stay back from the suspect vehicle, using their patrol cars for cover).
The officers learned from the victim she had visited a business in the 2300 block of Pico Boulevard and had left her car engine running with the hazard warning lights flashing as she returned some rented items to the business.
When she had returned to the vehicle she noticed it rolling forward.
Assuming that she had forgotten to apply the parking brake she approached the vehicle, but when she opened the passenger door she saw the two car-jackers who suddenly accelerated away.
The victim told the officers she was dragged to the intersection at Cloverfield Boulevard where she let go and fell onto the street, resulting in various minor injuries to her legs.
The officers arrested the two suspects.
The first suspect was charged with carjacking, parole violation and a child cruelty warrant. The second suspect was charged with carjacking.
Bail was set at $130,000 and $100,000 respectively.
Editor’s Note: These reports are part of a regular police coverage series entitled “Alert Police Blotter” (APB), which injects some minor editorial into certain police activities in Santa Monica. Not all of the Mirror’s coverage of incidents involving police are portrayed in this manner. More serious crimes and police-related activities are regularly reported without editorial in the pages of the Santa Monica Mirror and its website, smmirror.com.
