Auto theft suspect surrenders on roof of Modesto home after crash

An auto theft suspect was pulled from the roof of a home Thursday morning after crashing a car in front of Downey High School.

The 26-year-old man was traveling south on Coffee Road in a white Honda when an officer tried to pull him over on a traffic violation about 10:30 a.m., said Modesto Police Department spokeswoman Heather Graves.

The driver failed to yield, continued south and hit a curb, blowing out two of the Honda’s tires, she said.

The man lost control of the car at Chadwick Court and it veered across the northbound lanes before crashing onto the curb in front of Downey High, Graves said.

The driver ran across the street and climbed onto the roof of Lisa Carmack’s home. She’d heard the crash and peeked out the window but didn’t see the man running toward her home.

“He must have jumped my fence, went in the backyard and up on the roof,” she said after the ordeal. “I do have an (air conditioning) unit back there, and with the adrenaline, he must have just got right up.”

Officers converged on the home, she said.

“They were all just lined up right here, telling him, ‘Get down now,’ and they had – I couldn’t tell if they were Tasers or weapons or both – pointing up toward him,” Carmack said, pointing to the lawn off her front porch. “The cops were amazing, they had it under control like they practiced it 100 times. … They probably have.”

Graves said the officers threatened to user Tasers on the man, so he jumped from the roof.

The Fire Department was called to use its ladder to search the roof, where officers found “a lit cigarette on my roof … he had time to smoke,” Carmack said, incredulous.

Officers searched the suspect’s pockets and found shaved keys, Graves said.

While police were at the scene, the Honda’s owner reported the car stolen.

Officers went to the victim’s home in the 2000 block of East Orangeburg Avenue, where they found another stolen car abandoned nearby.

“That’s pretty typical – when a car is stolen, we usually find a prior stolen car near the victim’s residence,” Graves said. “It’s a joy-ride type.”

After being handcuffed and put into a patrol car, suspect James Hamner, a Bay Area resident, said he needed medical attention, so an ambulance was called to the scene.

He was coughing and moaning as he was taken out of the patrol car and put onto a gurney.

Graves said Hamner will be medically cleared before being taken to jail. He faces charges of auto theft, resisting arrest, evading, possession of burglary tools and hit-and-run.

This story was originally published April 2, 2015 at 1:05 PM with the headline "Auto theft suspect surrenders on roof of Modesto home after crash."