Pomona Shooting Suspect Cleared

A suspect in the shooting of a Pomona police officer that triggered a four-county police chase ending in Santa Ana was released from custody Monday after investigators concluded that he was only a look-alike.

Pomona Police Capt. Chuck Heilman said Robert Garcia, 25, has been cleared of any involvement in the case and that police are searching for a man who resembles him.

Meanwhile, the district attorney’s office Monday filed complaints against two suspects in the case, Regino Deharo, 21, of Santa Ana, and Jesus Garcia, 28, of Pomona.

Police did not immediately release the name of the third suspect they are seeking but said he lives in Santa Ana.

Deharo was arraigned Monday in Pomona Municipal Court on a 23-count complaint alleging that he shot Pomona Officer Roger Mathews in the arm and thigh and fired at several other officers. The charges include robbery, kidnaping and attempted murder. Deharo pleaded not guilty.

Jesus Garcia was charged with five counts, including attempted murder, but his arraignment was delayed by illness. He was taken into custody by police near the robbery scene Thursday.

After Jesus Garcia was captured, Deharo and an accomplice allegedly fled in a white station wagon onto the San Bernardino Freeway, shooting at pursuing police and hitting a motorist’s car before leaving the freeway at Vineyard Avenue in Ontario.

Deharo allegedly commandeered a pickup truck and forced the owner, Bob Moxley of Upland, to drive as Deharo fired at police cars.

In interviews Monday with local television stations, Moxley--a bespectacled customer-service representative for an Ontario irrigation company--said the drive was “a harrowing experience.�

During the chase, which wound into Orange County, the gunman issued one rapid-fire command after another, and even ordered him to make the turn into a cul-de-sac in Santa Ana where he was eventually trapped.

But, Moxley said, he managed to remain calm, and he thanked God for “giving me the strength to get through all of this.�

Meanwhile, Ontario police scoured the area where the pickup and a second truck were stolen and arrested Robert Garcia, 25, of Ontario, who was walking in the neighborhood with an injured foot and, police said, a toy gun in his pocket.

Heilman said the case against Robert Garcia was troubling from the start because the second stolen truck was not found. But, he said, a witness identified Robert Garcia as one of the suspects in a lineup and two other witnesses identified him from pictures.

But through further investigation, Heilman said, it became clear that it was not Garcia, but a man who looked very much like him that police were seeking.

“It was an honest mistake,� Heilman said. If you compare the pictures of Garcia and the real suspect, he said, “you’d swear they were twins.�

Robert Garcia’s sister, Regina, 23, said her brother was at home during the Pomona robbery and, in fact, even watched part of the freeway chase on television with her. She said he injured his foot jumping onto a spike on a Christmas tree stand while working in the back yard. He then got into an argument with other family members, refused to be driven to a nearby hospital and instead set out for it on foot.

Garcia was pushing a shopping cart to steady his balance and had the Christmas tree spike in the cart when he was stopped by police.

His mother, Amalia Lopez, said she tried to tell police that they had the wrong person but “they wouldn’t listen.�