SAN JOSE — Police have released the names of two Antioch men they say were part of a break-in at an car dealership in East San Jose and were shot at by an officer trying to stop them from fleeing in a stolen SUV early Monday.
Trevon Richardson, 21, and 18-year-old Malachi Chandler were arrested after the confrontation at Infiniti of San Jose at Tully Road and Capitol Expressway, according to San Jose police. No one was hit by the officer’s gunfire, and no injuries were reported.
Officers were dispatched to the car lot just after 4 a.m. Monday after a break-in through a glass front entrance of the sales office triggered a security alarm, according to San Jose police and the dealership.
Owner Peter Amin said Monday that as many five people proceeded to rifle through offices in search of car keys, adding that some of the intruders got hold of keys to an SUV that had been traded in the previous evening.
Police say Richardson got behind the wheel of the trade-in SUV, with Chandler riding as passenger, and subsequently crashed into a new SUV and two new sedans on the lot. In an attempt to flee the scene, police say the driver sped toward an officer who responded to the burglary call and was out on foot.
That prompted the officer to open fire, police said. No one was hit, and the SUV occupants were arrested afterward.
Richardson was booked into the Elmwood men’s jail in Milpitas on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon on a police officer, commercial burglary and conspiracy, and was being held on $100,000 bail, according to jail records. Police said Chandler was booked on suspicion of commercial burglary, conspiracy and an out-of-county arrest warrant. By Tuesday morning, Chandler was out of custody according to jail records
The SUV used by the suspects and the ones it damaged amounted to a loss of about $250,000, Amin said. He added that two nights prior, someone vandalized seven vehicles in the lot. No additional suspects in the Monday break-in have been publicly identified.
The incident marked the city’s fifth police shooting of the year. One of those shootings was fatal.
The officer who fired his gun has been with SJPD for three years; police have not publicly released his name. He was placed on paid administrative leave and a shooting investigation was launched by the SJPD homicide unit, which will be monitored by the department’s internal affairs unit, Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office, city attorney’s office and the independent police auditor.
