CHICO, Calif. — A customer at a Bank of America branch, several motorists and some technicians at Les Schwab Tires helped corral a man being chased by a California Highway Patrol officer Tuesday afternoon in Chico.
Officer Bob Boyer said he was driving south on Highway 99 just before 1 p.m., when he spotted a blue pickup speeding north near Entler Avenue.
Boyer turned around and clocked the vehicle, a Dodge Dakota, at 91 mph in a 65 mph zone. When he tried to stop it, the driver took the Park/Skyway off-ramp and turned east onto the Skyway.
With Boyer watching, the driver went into an opposing lane to get around traffic stopped at a signal, then attempted a high-speed left turn onto Notre Dame Boulevard.
The truck went over a curb and crashed into hedges just a few feet from a building housing Bank of America and Clearwire Communications. Boyer said a female passenger bolted from the cab and ran west toward Highway 99.
Kyle Lema, a customer who'd been in the bank, began chasing the driver north on Notre Dame as Boyer tried to get ahead of him in his patrol car.
The officer said several motorists saw what was happening and tried to cut off the fleeing man, who was reportedly running out of places to go.
With the help of Lema and some technicians at the Les Schwab Tires Center on Notre Dame, the suspect, identified as Sammy Sofar Grijalva Lenz, was cornered and taken into custody.
The woman in the vehicle was located by Chico police at Park Avenue and Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway; she was detained for questioning.
Boyer said Lenz was driving a stolen truck, had drugs in the vehicle and was a convicted sex offender. Court records show he was being sought on a $4,000 warrant for not updating his sex-offender registration.
According to Boyer, Butte County sheriff's deputies who responded to help said they were very familiar with the suspect.
He was booked into the Butte County Jail in Oroville on suspicion of receiving stolen property, vehicle theft, evading an officer, resisting arrest, possession of drugs, hit-and-run and driving on a suspended license. His bail was set at $64,080.
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