1 Killed in Rash of Carjackings

Carjackers seized six vehicles in San Diego between Friday afternoon and early Saturday, and police said a would-be carjacker attempting to seize a seventh in less than 12 hours was fatally stabbed in Mission Valley.

In the wake of last week’s carjacking in the Gaslamp Quarter in which a 28-year-old Hillcrest man was shot to death and a San Diego County sheriff’s deputy was severely beaten, police said the weekend’s carjackings constituted a near-epidemic.

As San Diego police continued to search for 34-year-old Johnaton George, the suspect in last week’s fatal carjacking in the Gaslamp Quarter, Homicide Lt. John Welter called a Saturday morning press conference to discuss the high number of weekend carjackings.

Five vehicles were stolen between 1:35 and 11:47 p.m. Friday, when one of three suspects in a would-be carjacking in front of the El Torito restaurant in Mission Valley was stabbed to death by one of his two intended victims.

Police said three men in a black sedan pulled in behind a car parked in the El Torito parking lot in the 400 block of Camino del Rio South. Police said the victims, a 35-year-old woman and her 32-year-old boyfriend, were trying to leave the restaurant.

The men got out of the black sedan and surrounded the victims’ car. A witness told police one of the suspects began to threaten the woman, who was seated behind the wheel. Police said the suspect broke the woman’s window and began beating her, attempting to drag her from the car.

Her boyfriend, riding in the front passenger seat, stabbed the suspect in the neck with a hunting knife, police said, after which the three suspects sped from the scene.

Shortly thereafter, the injured suspect, 25-year-old David Ray Gooch, was admitted to the emergency room of Mercy Hospital, where he died soon after arriving. Gooch lived in the 4100 block of 50th Street in East San Diego.

By Saturday afternoon, police had arrested his two companions, Daniel K. Hilburn, 28, and Robert Bible, 23. Hilburn, who lives in the 4100 block of 43rd Street in East San Diego, and Bible, who lives in the 5100 block of Sterling Court in City Heights, are both in the Navy.

The names of the driver and her boyfriend were being withheld pending further investigation.

The carjacking frenzy began at 1:35 p.m. Friday, police said, when a man thought to be in his mid-20s seized a 1984 blue Ford van in the 100 block of East San Ysidro Boulevard, in front of a 7-Eleven store in San Ysidro near the international border.

At 2:36 p.m. Friday, police said a thin, bearded man seized a 1985 Nissan 300Z that was being test-driven at a Nissan dealership near the intersection of El Cajon Boulevard and Texas Street in North Park.

At 3:38 p.m. Friday, police said a man armed with a knife seized a 1986 green Ford Ranger pickup in the 5400 block of University Avenue in East San Diego.

At 5:50 p.m. Friday, police said two men seized a brown Toyota Corolla in the 700 block of West Street in East San Diego.

At 6:12 p.m. Friday, police said two men seized a 1978 Honda Accord while the victim was getting gas at a station in the 500 block of South 30th Street in Logan Heights.

At 10:14 p.m. Friday, officers arrested two suspects driving the Honda Accord in the 3200 block of Logan Avenue in East San Diego.

At 1:16 a.m. Saturday, a man armed with a gun seized a car in the 4800 block of Franklin Avenue in East San Diego and took the driver’s wallet, police said, along with an undetermined amount of cash.

Police said late Saturday they had investigated numerous false leads involving Johnaton George, who last week escaped from a prisoners van before seizing the deputy’s gun and killing the motorist whose car he stole.