Jabbing the point of a knife into an older man’s ribs three times in front of a Manteca market and demanding his wallet evolved into a police pursuit mid-afternoon Wednesday that ended at the Airport Way off ramp of the Highway 120 Bypass.
The altercation occurred in the handicapped parking zone in front of Food-4-Less grocery store on East Yosemite Avenue, according to police. A motorist who witnessed the robbery called Manteca Police and followed the suspect onto the bypass and west bound toward the Bay Area.
Two officers were alerted by their dispatcher and staged in their units on both sides of the South Main Street bridge that spans the freeway. Officers Armen Avakian, Mike Keener, Ken Wells and Captain Charlie Goeken, in an unmarked car, gave chase as the suspect passed South Main Street.
The patrolmen initiated a high risk traffic stop at the end of the west bound off ramp at Airport Way taking the two suspects out of their vehicle at gunpoint. Eldarius Jamarr White, 22, of Manteca was charged with two felonies: robbery and assault with a deadly weapon likely to have caused great bodily injury.
Officers recovered the victim’s credit cards and cash that were taken in the assault. Police said the suspect reportedly threw the wallet from the fleeing vehicle just before he turned onto the off ramp. Manteca Police Explorer Clayton Keener located the wallet in high weeds along the edge of the freeway. The wallet still contained the man’s license and business cards. The male passenger in the vehicle was released at the scene.
A police officer drove the victim to the scene of the traffic stop where he confirmed the suspect held at the road side was the man who had taken his wallet, police said.
White was transported to the San Joaquin County Jail in French Camp where he is being held in lieu of $75,000 bail. His court date is set for Friday at 1:30 p.m. in the Manteca Branch, Department M of the San Joaquin County Superior Court.
The altercation occurred in the handicapped parking zone in front of Food-4-Less grocery store on East Yosemite Avenue, according to police. A motorist who witnessed the robbery called Manteca Police and followed the suspect onto the bypass and west bound toward the Bay Area.
Two officers were alerted by their dispatcher and staged in their units on both sides of the South Main Street bridge that spans the freeway. Officers Armen Avakian, Mike Keener, Ken Wells and Captain Charlie Goeken, in an unmarked car, gave chase as the suspect passed South Main Street.
The patrolmen initiated a high risk traffic stop at the end of the west bound off ramp at Airport Way taking the two suspects out of their vehicle at gunpoint. Eldarius Jamarr White, 22, of Manteca was charged with two felonies: robbery and assault with a deadly weapon likely to have caused great bodily injury.
Officers recovered the victim’s credit cards and cash that were taken in the assault. Police said the suspect reportedly threw the wallet from the fleeing vehicle just before he turned onto the off ramp. Manteca Police Explorer Clayton Keener located the wallet in high weeds along the edge of the freeway. The wallet still contained the man’s license and business cards. The male passenger in the vehicle was released at the scene.
A police officer drove the victim to the scene of the traffic stop where he confirmed the suspect held at the road side was the man who had taken his wallet, police said.
White was transported to the San Joaquin County Jail in French Camp where he is being held in lieu of $75,000 bail. His court date is set for Friday at 1:30 p.m. in the Manteca Branch, Department M of the San Joaquin County Superior Court.
