Officers activate SWAT to get drunk man out of pickup after shooting, Modesto police say
Officers fired a pepper ball into a pickup at a west Modesto gas station and activated a SWAT team Sunday night when an intoxicated man refused to get out, police said.
The standoff at the Chevron at North Carpenter Road and Woodland Avenue followed a shooting at a home about a mile away, said Modesto Police Department spokeswoman Sharon Bear.
Sarai Rangel Villasenor, 30, had been in a fight with her ex-girlfriend at a home in the 2400 block of Sussex Lane at about 9 p.m., Bear said. She allegedly fired several shots into unoccupied parked vehicles, then left with two men in a white Chevrolet Silvarado.
An officer located the Chevrolet at the Chevron about 30 minutes later. Officers surrounded the pickup and ordered Villasenor and the two men out at gunpoint.
Villasenor and the driver, 22-year-old Rafael Pacheco Medina, cooperated with officers’ orders, but the back seat passenger, 29-year-old Miguel Angel Cruz Vargas, refused to get out, Bear said.
Officers fired a pepper ball into the pickup, but Vargas still wouldn’t budge, police said.
It wasn’t until the department’s SWAT team arrived about 45 minutes after police originally arrived at the gas station that Vargas surrendered, Bear said.
A firearm without a serial number was recovered from under the seat in which Villasenor had been sitting, police said. She was booked into jail on suspicion of domestic battery, possession of a concealed and stolen firearm, possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number, possession of a controlled substance, and three counts of shooting into an unoccupied vehicle.
Medina was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence. Vargas was arrested on suspicion of public intoxication and resisting arrest.
This story was originally published January 28, 2019 at 3:10 PM.
