Teen suspect arrested on suspicion of shooting at motorists on Stanislaus County road
A 18-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of shooting at multiple vehicles along Albers Road east of Modesto, the Stanislaus County Sheriff’s Office reported Sunday morning.
James Ganjeh was taken into custody Saturday night about 10 p.m. at his residence on the 1700 block of Albers, from where he’d been shooting at passing motorists, the the Sheriff’s Office said in a news release.
There were three instances of shootings, which occurred over the past month and a half between Dusty Lane and Milnes Road. “Fortunately, nobody was injured in any of the shootings, and victims were at first able to share very little in the way of where the gunfire had been originating,” the news release says. The shootings were on March 1, April 14 and April 16.
Investigators began increasing their presence in the area, working leads and collecting evidence. Ganjeh became the target of their focus when the third shooting was reported early Saturday afternoon.
Investigators got search and arrest warrants for the suspect, who was taken into custody by members of the Special Investigations Unit and Special Weapons and Tactics team at about 10 p.m.
“Ganjeh did not immediately surrender, as he tried to escape towards the rear of the property and discard and dismantle what was later deemed to be a handgun used during the shootings,” the news release says.
Interviewed later, Ganjeh admitted to his involvement in each of the instances, in which occupied and unoccupied vehicles were struck by gunfire.
Ganjeh was booked into the Stanislaus County Public Safety Center on preliminary charges of willful discharge of a firearm in a negligent manner, shooting at an unoccupied motor vehicle, four counts of shooting at an inhabited dwelling or vehicle, and four counts of assault with a firearm upon a person.
He is being held in lieu of $1,050,000 bail.
