Warning About Suspect Proves Prophetic : Rap sheet: Probation report on man held in officer’s shooting and wild chase said his crimes were ‘escalating in seriousness.’
SANTA ANA — To county probation officials, the warning signs were clear: Former juvenile delinquent Regino (Reggie) De Haro Jr. was a hardened criminal and rapidly becoming incorrigible.
His “criminal conduct is escalating in seriousness and intensity, and for all of these reasons, he is considered to be an unsuitable candidate for continued probation supervision,†wrote Dennis LaCrosse, an Orange County probation officer.
That prophesy appeared to be fulfilled Thursday when De Haro allegedly shot a Pomona police officer, then commandeered a pickup truck at gunpoint in Ontario and led officers on a bullet-riddled, 50-mile chase across four counties. It ended when De Haro, 21, of Santa Ana ran from the truck in his old neighborhood in Santa Ana and surrendered.
On Friday, authorities said De Haro and two other men arrested in the shooting of Officer Roger Mathews, 51, will be charged with attempted murder.
The two other suspects were identified as Robert Lee Garcia, 25, of Ontario and Jesus Ochoa Garcia, 28, of Pomona. One was arrested a few blocks from the home where Mathews was shot. The other was taken into custody a few minutes later after attempting to escape in a stolen truck.
Mathews was still reported in fair condition Friday at Long Beach Memorial Hospital, where he was being treated for wounds suffered when a bullet pierced his right arm and grazed his left thigh.
Acquaintances and court records portrayed De Haro as an extremely violent, troubled young man who spurned several efforts by county probation officials to help him turn his life around.
His trail of violence began at age 14, when he was convicted and sentenced to probation for assaulting a high school teacher.
That was to be the first entry in De Haro’s lengthy police rap sheet.
During the ensuing years, he used 11 aliases while participating in burglaries, kidnaping, forgery, auto theft, assault with a firearm, assault to commit rape, attempted murder, and using and dealing drugs, among others.
One of De Haro’s recent brushes with the law occurred in February, 1992, when Santa Ana police officers caught him as he tried to burglarize a car in the 900 block of West Myrtle Street--about a mile from the spot where Thursday’s chase ended.
In that incident, police found De Haro carrying eight small bags of marijuana and a 10-inch screwdriver.
A month later, De Haro pleaded guilty to possessing marijuana for sale and was sentenced to nine months in jail and three years of probation.
De Haro spent almost five months in jail. Just days after his release, he tested positive for the use of morphine and marijuana when he made a mandatory appearance before his probation officer.
Although that was a violation of his probation, he was not jailed. But a month later, in March, 1992, he was arrested at the Nordstrom department store at South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa on suspicion of using a stolen credit card.
His most violent crime, authorities said, came Thursday in what apparently was a bungled robbery attempt at a home near the San Bernardino Freeway in Pomona, police said. De Haro and his partners were attempting to pull off a daylight robbery at a home owned by Carmen Marquez, 38, when police were summoned to the residence.
Marquez, 38, was preparing for work Thursday morning when three men barged into her Pomona house, brandishing guns. She said the would-be robbers ordered her, her daughter and a 4-year-old niece into a bedroom, demanding money, jewelry and drugs.
Police, alerted by a 911 call placed by a member of the family, suddenly showed up. In the confusion that followed, Officer Mathews was shot and the robbers fled. De Haro eventually commandeered a truck belonging to Bob Moxley of Ontario and forced Moxley to drive during the wild hourlong chase.
In the climax of Thursday’s four-county police pursuit, De Haro crisscrossed the streets of his old Santa Ana neighborhood until the pickup truck he had commandeered finally was hemmed in on a cul-de-sac by a cordon of police cars.
De Haro had lived in a gray stucco house on Laura Linda Lane, the next street over from Manitoba Drive, the street where he was captured. But neighbors on Laura Linda said Friday that his family had moved to another section of Santa Ana about seven years ago.
After exchanging gunfire with police and vaulting the fences of some former neighbors, De Haro dropped his gun in a back yard and surrendered.
As De Haro was led away by police Thursday, a former neighbor recognized him.
“He looked at me and nodded like (he was saying) ‘Whazzup?’ †said the neighbor, a 25-year-old Santa Ana man who asked that his name not be used. “I was not surprised it was him, but he (acted as if his arrest) was no big deal.â€
Another acquaintance described De Haro as someone who “likes to throw blowsâ€--meaning that he picks fights.
“I don’t know if I would call him a hard-core criminal,†said the 23-year-old man, who also requested anonymity. “But he was kinda wild. He would do his thing, like maybe deal a little drugs, or rob someone to get money, if he needed it.â€
Others said De Haro was fiercely loyal to a Santa Ana street gang named “Dogtown.â€
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