Man arrested near Baker in two-state shooting rampage
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- Authorities arrested a man who they allege fired at and wounded multiple people while on a two-state shooting rampage that ended Tuesday morning near the California desert town of Baker.
- The San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department announced it had detained Antonio Chaidez.
Authorities have arrested a man suspected of wounding at least three people during a two-state shooting rampage that ended Tuesday morning near the California desert town of Baker.
The string of shootings is believed to have started Monday night in Blue Diamond, Nev., and continued south into California, where the suspect was taken into custody by San Bernardino County sheriff’s deputies, according to authorities.
In a statement, the Sheriff’s Department identified the suspect as Antonio Chaidez, 35.
In the attacks, Chaidez is believed to have shot at people asleep in their vehicles, but it’s unclear what sparked the shootings or why the people were targeted.
The chain of events began about 10:25 Monday evening in Blue Diamond, where Las Vegas Metropolitan Police officials say a shooter fired multiple times toward a person who was asleep in his truck.
The incident occurred in the 13500 block of Blue Diamond Road, and the target was not harmed, police said in a statement.
A few hours later, officials say, a second shooting took place in Jean, Nev. sometime around 2 a.m. A man told Las Vegas police he was asleep in his car when someone began to shoot at him. He was uninjured, and the shooter fled.
A few minutes later, a third shooting was reported in California. San Bernardino County deputies found a man about 2:30 a.m. who they believed had been shot in his car while sleeping, off Cima Road not far from the Halloran Springs area. The Sheriff’s Department’s statement didn’t disclose the man’s condition.
The man was shot at the intersection of La Brea Avenue and Santa Monica Boulevard, home to the busy West Hollywood Gateway mall.
About 10 minutes later, according to the statement, deputies responded to a a Chevron gas station in Baker, where a shooter had fired several rounds into the gas station through a back door and hit a clerk, and also shot into two parked big rigs, hitting one of the drivers.
All three victims were taken to hospitals. Their status is unknown.
According to the Sheriff’s Department, the California Highway Patrol spotted the suspect’s vehicle heading south on Interstate 15 near Afton Canyon Road and began a pursuit; deputies assisted and arrested Chaidez about 20 miles away, off Harvard Road.
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