Residents of Sunnyvale were asked to shelter in place last Thursday as a suspect led police on a 16-hour chase.
A press release from the Kaufman County Sheriff’s Office explained that the incident began on March 30 shortly after 6 p.m., when the driver of a vehicle that had been reported stolen in Carrollton was spotted by a deputy.
The suspect failed to stop and led the authorities on a chase heading west on Highway 80 until he collided with another vehicle at N. Jobson Road in Sunnyvale.
The driver, later identified as 20-year-old Omar Robledo, allegedly fired multiple shots at police as he fled from the scene of the crash on foot.
A passenger, 20-year-old Alejandro Honorato-Calderon, was arrested and charged with drug possession.
Amid what Sunnyvale authorities referred to as “a very dangerous situation” in a social media post, residents in the nearby area were told to shelter in place and keep their doors locked “until otherwise notified.”
Multiple agencies worked together through the night to track down the suspect, who was believed to be hiding in a wooded area, per NBC 5.
Schools in the area announced delayed starts, with Sunnyvale ISD eventually canceling classes for the day as the situation remained unresolved.
Just after 11 a.m. on March 31, Sunnyvale police announced that the suspect had been apprehended in the Meadowlake neighborhood off Jobson Road, bringing the manhunt to a close.
Robledo now faces various charges, including the unauthorized use of a motor vehicle, evading arrest in a vehicle, evading arrest or detention, and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon/public servant.
No one was injured in the incident.
Both Robledo and Honorato-Calderon are currently in the custody of the Kaufman County Sheriff’s Office.
The residents of Sunnyvale, a rural town in Dallas County on the border with Kaufman County, showed their appreciation for their local police force with donuts and cookies in the following days.
“Our police department is just one reason Sunnyvale continues to be one of the safest communities in North Texas,” Sunnyvale Mayor Saji George said in a statement Friday. “I’m proud of the persistence and professionalism our officers exhibited during this extraordinary situation.”
In nearby Dallas, there have been 3,506 reports of motor vehicle theft since the start of the year, per data from the Dallas Police Department. This is nearly a 7% increase from this time last year.
District 14, represented by Council Member Paul Ridley, has contributed most to this increase. The downtown district saw a 47.2% increase in motor vehicle thefts and a 22.5% increase in car burglaries year-over-year in February, as The Dallas Express reported.
