Woman Abducted by Gunmen : Crime: The two men also stole a pickup from a home in Riverside County. One suspect was arrested in Santa Ana after a shootout with police, the other escaped.
SANTA ANA — A kidnaping that began in Riverside County ended in a shootout between police and one of the suspected kidnapers, authorities said Friday.
The incident began at 6:45 a.m. Thursday when two armed men burst into a house on Candlewood Street in Home Gardens, an unincorporated area southwest of Riverside, said Riverside Sheriff’s detective Henry Sawicki. The men yelled about drugs and money, grabbed 21-year-old Erlinda Gomez and demanded that family members hand over the keys to a pickup truck, he said.
The attackers ran from the home with Gomez in tow, police said. Her brother grabbed a pistol from inside the home and shot at the men but hit no one.
About 8 a.m., Gomez’s abductors called her home, demanding money in exchange for the woman’s return, police said. Investigators would not say how much money was demanded.
A short time later, detectives traced another call to Home Gardens to a telephone booth in Santa Ana, Sawicki said.
A pair of deputies drove to the 300 block of East 17th Street and saw Gomez in the stolen truck along with two men, he said. The suspects apparently saw the deputies in an unmarked car and sped off. A Santa Ana patrol car chased the pickup truck to the 800 block of Garfield Street, where the two men abandoned the truck and ran in different directions.
Police rescued Gomez from the truck before one of the men wheeled around and began firing at police, Santa Ana Police Sgt. Art Echternacht said. At least two officers shot and wounded him.
Ignacio Martinez, 20, was taken to Western Medical Center-Santa Ana, where he was arrested on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon, abduction and vehicle theft, police said.
The other suspect escaped. Police don’t know who he is. Riverside County investigators said they did not know why the woman was taken or why they targeted that house. Gomez told investigators that she had never seen the two men before.
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