HollisterFreelance.com | Home invasion leads to officers shooting into vehicle

Home invasion leads to officers shooting into vehicle

Jun 1, 2009
By Kollin Kosmicki





		Joaquin McKenzie, 26, and Robert Gidding, 26, are accused of invading the home early Sunday morning. Gidding also is accused of attempted murder for driving a vehicle toward sheriff's deputies.
		Photo by: Special to the Free Lance

HOLLISTER

A home invasion near San Juan Bautista in which two residents were bound and tied early Sunday morning led to sheriff's deputies minutes later firing several rounds into a vehicle when one of the suspects fled, according to a San Benito County Sheriff's Office's spokesman.

Deputies responding to the home invasion had been arresting one of two located suspects in the 2200 block of San Juan-Hollister Road when another one turned on the headlights of a large, black vehicle and began driving rapidly toward the officers.

That is when two of the deputies fired a total of about 15 rounds at the automobile before the driver escaped, said Lt. Roy Iler of the sheriff's office. No one was injured in either the home invasion or the officer-involved shooting, he said.

Sheriff's deputies at the scene arrested Joaquin McKenzie, 26, who did not have a listed address on jail records. Though the driver initially escaped, a deputy identified him as he attempted to flee, Iler said. The sheriff's office put out a "be on the lookout" notice to area agencies and about five hours later, a Hollister Police Department officer recognized and arrested the suspect, 26-year-old Robert Gidding of Gilroy, while responding to a suspicious person report on Ortiz Court in Hollister.

The two residents of the home in the 2500 block of San Juan-Hollister Road - the small house is surrounded by farm fields off Highway 156 - have positively identified the vehicle as the same one used in the invasion, Iler said. They could not I.D. the two suspects, the victims told deputies, because it was dark and they were tied up.

"They did get a look at the car when it drove away," Iler said.

The two residents of the house declined to comment to the Free Lance on Monday when questioned outside the home about the incident.

The sheriff's office spokesman noted how the two victims reported there may have been up to four intruders involved in the home invasion.

Sheriff's deputies responded at about 12:25 a.m. Sunday. The two victims reported they were awoken and bound and tied with the use of zip ties, said Iler, who could not provide more specific details. The victims described the suspects as wearing all black, and they reported $80 and a cell phone stolen after the home invasion, Iler said.

Deputies actually found the two suspects Sunday morning with the help of a little luck. Since addresses are not necessarily in sequence on San Juan-Hollister Road, deputies responding to the home invasion ended up about three miles away from the incident at a long driveway in the 2200 block near the old sewer plant. When deputies arrived there, thinking it was the right location, they came across the two suspects.

McKenzie, wearing all black, started to walk up the driveway when officers apprehended him. While they were doing so, the black vehicle approached.

"As he's putting him in the car, another set of headlights goes on," Iler said.

With three deputies on scene - including the arresting officer - the vehicle accelerated toward one of the officers in the road. That deputy and another one then fired into the vehicle as it drove by, and one of them shot out a front tire on the vehicle, Iler said.

Authorities say Gidding continued east on San Juan-Hollister Road toward the San Benito River. A fourth deputy arriving on the scene later found the vehicle abandoned nearby. But the suspect had escaped by that point, the spokesman said, only to be arrested hours later when a resident reported seeing Gidding dressed in black behind a Jeep in a driveway.

Iler also noted how investigators in the recovered vehicle found the same type of zip ties used in the home invasion.

The sheriff's office recommended felony charges alleging attempted murder of an officer and home invasion for Gidding, along with the same home invasion charge for McKenzie.

Kollin Kosmicki
Kollin Kosmicki is editor of the Free Lance and Pinnacle. Reach him at 831-637-5566 ext. 337 or editor@freelancenews.com.