March shooting in Modesto leads to 18-year-old's attempted-murder arrest

Police have arrested an 18-year-old suspect in a shooting March 8 in the area of North McClure Road and Penny Lane in east Modesto.

Sacaria Pereida was in the Stanislaus County Jail on Monday, facing charges of attempted murder and assault with a firearm. He is suspected of firing at a person who was in the front yard of a home in the area.

The person was not struck by the gunfire, Modesto Police Department spokeswoman Heather Graves said Monday. The shooting resulted in Hughes Elementary School being put on lockdown for a while that day.

Pereida, being held on $255,000 bail, was arrested Wednesday. Modesto police previously arrested him March 12 in the Sherwood Forest neighborhood, but the only charge at the time was reckless evasion of officers.

That day, officers first attempted a traffic stop of Pereida in the area of Kerr Avenue and Oregon Drive in the airport neighborhood. With two passengers in his vehicle, Pereida fled through downtown, and police ended their pursuit for safety reasons, said Lt. Steve Stanfield.

Units reported seeing Pereida’s vehicle on Pelandale Avenue, in Salida and then southbound on Highway 99 at high speed. On city streets, he reportedly drove as fast as 90 mph, Graves said.

Officers lost sight of him for a bit, then he was seen in the area of Tuxford Lane and Robin Hood Drive, “where conditions were good enough to stop him,” Graves said.

Police used a pursuit intervention technique, or PIT maneuver, to force Pereida to lose control. His vehicle spun and ran into bushes in the neighborhood, Stanfield said.

This story was originally published April 9, 2018 at 12:12 PM with the headline "March shooting in Modesto leads to 18-year-old's attempted-murder arrest."