Last Updated on January 10, 2019 by CCAR Staff
Three people — including a carjacking suspect bitten by a police K-9 — were hospitalized Wednesday, Jan. 9, after a traffic collision at the end of a pursuit, the Corona Police Department said.
Officers responded to the 400 block of River Road about 4 p.m. for a report of a carjacking, Officer Tobias Kouroubacalis said. Officers spotted the vehicle, a 2016 Honda Accord, a short time later and tried to pull it over, but the driver fled in the car.
Police in a statement said the Accord had been carjacked from the owner, who was not injured during the confrontation while he was standing by his vehicle. A male bystander was assaulted during the carjacking and sustained minor injuries.
“At about 5:53 p.m., officers located the vehicle in the 200 block of E. Olive Street in Corona, attempted to stop the vehicle and a short pursuit ensued,” officials said in the statement.
The pursuit ended when the suspect, 20-year-old Corona resident Eric Guzman, crashed into a tree and then two other vehicles on Main Street between Stan Reynolds Parkway and Sixth Street, according to police.
Guzman ran from the wreck but was apprehended by the K-9, and he was taken into custody and hospitalized with minor injuries. Two women were also hospitalized in stable condition with varying injuries sustained in the crash, police said.
Guzman was arrested on suspicion of carjacking, resisting arrest, gang membership, hit and run causing injury or death, driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs causing injury, felony evading and battery, according to the Riverside County jail log. Bail was set at $75,000.
Corona police said in a Facebook post last year that they arrested Guzman on March 9 in a car occupied by three people in which a reported stolen gun was found. Guzman was not charged with any crime in that case, according to Superior Court records, but he does have two convictions each for possession of a controlled substance, felony vandalism and possession of drug paraphernalia.
Police ask anyone with information on the carjacking to call Sgt. Skip Shatford at 951-736-2323 or information on the collisions to call Sgt. Bryan Snow at 951-739-4885.
