Modesto police search comes up empty after wild carjack incident on Briggsmore overpass

A man suspected of stealing a vehicle at gunpoint after an officer tried to pull him over for a traffic stop on the Briggsmore Avenue overpass Tuesday night was able to escape authorities after an exhaustive search.

At about 6:45 p.m. a CHP officer attempted to pull over the suspect on the offramp from southbound Highway 99 because the car he was driving had expired registration, according to Lt. Brandon Gillespie of the Modesto Police Department.

To get away from the officer the suspect rammed his car in between two lanes of traffic, side swiping three cars. When he couldn't get past a black BMW, the suspect got out of the car he was driving and carjacked the driver of the BMW at gunpoint.

The victim, a woman, did not suffer injuries and nobody else among those whose vehicles hit on the onramp reported any injuries.

A few minutes later, Modesto police received a report of a black BMW that had apparently bumped into another vehicle on Maplewood Drive just east of the Carver Road-Clayton Avenue intersection.

Residents reported seeing a man fleeing the vehicle and heading west. The BMW was left running, the window down and what appeared to be a methamphetamine pipe was sitting on the driver’s seat.

Police set up a perimeter in the area of Carver Road and Barbara Way, where the suspect, described only as a Latino male, was seen running west. Police using K-9 units searched that area. Other officers, along with support from the Stanislaus County Sheriff’s helicopter, searched the area west on North Ninth Street.

Nearly two hours later, police called off the search and broke down the perimeter.

This story was originally published November 17, 2015 at 8:24 PM with the headline "Modesto police search comes up empty after wild carjack incident on Briggsmore overpass."