Fatal motorcycle crash: A suspect carjacked three vehicles and killed a motorcyclist during a three-county high-speed chase.
A woman died in a motorcycle crash during a high-speed chase that involved three carjackings and led police through three counties — San Joaquin, Stanislaus and Merced — on Saturday.
• A 28-year-old man burglary suspect took police on two chases — one at high speeds — through three counties in a 24-hour span.
• He first tried to escape on foot, running back and forth across Highway 99. Traffic slowed, stopped, and scattered. A passenger was thrown off a motorcycle in the chaos that ensued and suffered a fatal head injury.
• The suspect carjacked three vehicles during the chase. He was finally caught and taken into custody in Modesto.
The pursuit started on Friday, exactly 24 hours before the actual high-speed chase, according to a report in the San Joaquin Valley Record.
Manteca Police Department spokesman Jason Henley told the Record that 29-year-old Manteca resident Brett Phares was wanted for questioning in connection with some residential burglaries.
Police tried to stop Phares on Friday at about 6:40 p.m., but he fled. Police chased him as he drove south on Highway 99. He exited the freeway at Austin Road, stopped his vehicle at Moffat Boulevard, got out and ran into a cornfield.
Police continued to search for Phares, but didn’t find him until Saturday at about 6:40 p.m., when they spotted him at a Carl’s Jr. on Hulsey Way, near the Yosemite Avenue interchange on Highway 99. Officers immediately started setting up a perimeter, but Phares escaped on foot, jumped a fence, and ran onto the freeway, Hensley said.
Phares criss-crossed the freeway, with police officers chasing him on foot and traffic slowing and scattering to avoid hitting any of them. That’s when the fatal motorcycle crash occurred.
A group of motorcyclists had to suddenly slow down to avoid crashing into slowed and stopped traffic on the freeway. One rider veered into the center divider, braked hard and lost control of his 2006 Harley-Davidson. His passenger, a 58-year-old Ceres woman whose name was not released, was thrown off the bike. She suffered a severe head injury which later proved fatal, according to the Manteca Bulletin.
When a motorist stopped to help, Phares pulled her out of her vehicle and stole her car, witnesses said. He headed south on the freeway and was intercepted by two Manteca officers at Austin Road. The high-speed chase was on. Phares was driving faster than 95 mph and was weaving in and out of traffic to try to elude capture.
California Highway Patrol units took over in Modesto and were eventually backed up by deputies from both Stanislaus County and Merced County deputies as well as a CHP helicopter. At one point, Phares got out of the vehicle he was driving, carjacked another vehicle, and drove it south towards Merced, the CHP said.
CHP officers followed that car to Atwater, where Phares switched directions and headed north. He then carjacked a third vehicle, which belonged to a photojournalist and had a police scanner inside. Phares got back on the freeway — with the journalist’s wife and child in the car — and drove north.
When Phares got back to Modesto, officers from several law enforcement agencies were able to stop him near the K Street overcrossing. He again tried to escape on foot, but officers used a helicopter to track him down. He was taken into custody at about 9:15 p.m.
Stanislaus County Sheriff Deputy Andrew Winters told CBS Channel 10 News Phares faces several felony charges in all three counties.
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