How did kidnapping suspect get from Newport to Cerritos? Police aren’t saying
Police were tight-lipped Wednesday about how a kidnapping suspect who escaped from a standoff with police in Newport Beach on Monday made his way to Cerritos before he was found and arrested Tuesday night.
Thomas Ueno, 35, was taken into custody without incident about 7 p.m. Tuesday while walking at the intersection of Marquardt Avenue and Destino Street in Cerritos, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, which made the arrest. Detectives from the Huntington Park Police Department eventually took custody of him.
Huntington Park police said detectives had learned of Ueno’s possible whereabouts and that surveillance was conducted in the area with the aid of the Sheriff’s Department. But police Lt. Al Martinez, citing a continuing investigation, did not elaborate on how or when they learned that or how Ueno got to Cerritos from Newport Beach.
Ueno was arrested on suspicion of kidnapping, felony evading, restraining-order violation, child endangerment and domestic violence, Martinez said.
He was being held Wednesday at the Los Angeles County Jail’s Inmate Reception Center with bail set at $860,000, according to jail records.
The case will be forwarded to the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office for consideration, Huntington Park police said.
Police say Ueno had fled from authorities Monday night after an hours-long standoff on Dover Drive in Newport Beach, following a freeway pursuit that started in Buena Park. A woman and two young children, who police said were Ueno’s girlfriend and their 1- and 6-year-old sons, were with him in a Hummer SUV throughout the incident, police said.
The case was initially reported to Huntington Park police as a restraining-order violation and a possible kidnapping of the woman and the two children.
Buena Park police got a request from officers from Huntington Park, about 16 miles northwest in Los Angeles County, to check for the dark-colored Hummer, said Buena Park police Sgt. Chris Nunez.
An officer saw the Hummer on Beach Boulevard in Buena Park at about 4:30 p.m. and pursued it, Nunez said. The Hummer got onto the southbound 5 Freeway, then the southbound 55 Freeway and southbound 405, according to the California Highway Patrol, which became the lead agency on the chase.
The driver did not travel at extreme speed, according to CHP Officer Florentino Olivera.
“He was driving about 70 mph, so he wasn’t affecting traffic either way,” Olivera said. “He wasn’t driving on the highway doing anything crazy.”
The driver left the 405 Freeway at Jamboree Road and continued south toward Irvine and Costa Mesa as CHP cruisers followed.
About 6 p.m., the driver approached the Newport Beach area, where fog from a heavy marine layer obscured the view of police helicopter crews.
The driver stopped at East Coast Highway and Jamboree Road in Newport Beach, then continued driving, later stopping near Newport Harbor High School when the SUV’s battery died, according to the CHP. He stayed there for several hours.
Dover Drive between West Coast Highway and East 16th Street was shut down as officers tried to negotiate the man’s surrender.
During the standoff, the driver occasionally stepped out of the Hummer, clutching a young child as he faced law enforcement. Another child was seen craning his head out of the vehicle’s sunroof.
At about 10 p.m., the man ran from the SUV and up a hillside near Castaways Park.
The woman and children, whose identities were not released, were unharmed, authorities said.
Olivera said CHP officers shot three or four bean bags at the driver as he fled.
When Ueno was arrested, he had minor injuries that police believe resulted from running through bushes as he was escaping, Martinez said.
The CHP said several factors contributed to the driver evading police in Newport, including the fog and darkness. Also, officers didn’t want to unleash a police dog with the woman and children present, the CHP said.
As officers backtracked on the path where the driver fled, they found a replica handgun they believe he had in the vehicle with him, Martinez said.
Daily Pilot staff writer Hannah Fry and Los Angeles Times staff writer Matt Hamilton contributed to this report.
