CHULA VISTA: A 28-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of trying to rob a convenience store and breaking a bottle over the manager's head, police said yesterday.
The robbery attempt was reported shortly before noon Monday at a 7-Eleven on Third Avenue at G Street, said Chula Vista police spokesman Bernard Gonzales.
Witnesses told police the assailant demanded cash from the store manager and assaulted him when he refused. At one point, the would-be robber grabbed a bottle from a shelf and broke it over the manager's head. During the fight, a witness called police from the rear of the store.
The assailant then ran out of the store. A responding patrol officer confronted him, wrestled him to the ground and, with help from another officer, arrested him. The store manager was treated at a hospital for minor head injuries and released.
The suspect was booked on suspicion of attempted robbery, battery, resisting arrest and obstructing a peace officer. –M.A.
Man shot at home
near Mira Mesa Mall
MIRA MESA: An argument between two men yesterday ended with one man shooting the other, wounding him in the upper arm, San Diego police said.
The shooting was reported about 6:15 p.m. at a residence near the Mira Mesa Mall on Reagan Road near New Salem Street.
Two men in their 20s got into a fight, and one shot the other with a handgun, police Sgt. Rich Nemetz said. The victim was taken to a hospital. The shooter drove away in a red Ford Mustang. –P.R.
Would-be thieves
drop loot, clothing
SAN DIEGO: Two robbers took cash and merchandise from a Midway District Sprint store last night, but they later dropped some of the money and some of their clothing, police said.
One suspect carried a handgun when the assailants walked into the Rosecrans Street store about 7:30 p.m. and ordered the two employees to the floor, San Diego police Sgt. Rich Nemetz said.
The would-be robbers, carrying a duffel bag and backpack, took money from two registers, a wallet from one worker and some cell phone earpieces. Officers found the duffel bag, some cash, a sweat shirt, a bandanna and two ball caps abandoned at a nearby car wash. –P.R.
Carjacker takes wallet,
drives away in SUV
SAN YSIDRO: A carjacker yanked a man out of his car and took his wallet in San Ysidro on Tuesday night, San Diego police said.
The man was in his 2001 Jeep Cherokee behind a Ford Thunderbird at a stop sign at Center Street and East Beyer Boulevard just before 10 p.m. A man got out of the Thunderbird, walked to the sport utility vehicle and opened the driver's door, police said.
He pulled the man out of the SUV, threw him to the ground and took his wallet, then drove off in the SUV, police said.
The Jeep has California license plates 5MLF217. –D.B.
Two men with guns
rob taco shop workers
SAN DIEGO: Two men armed with handguns robbed a fast-food restaurant in Allied Gardens on Tuesday night.
The robbers entered a side door of Los Panchos taco shop on Waring Road near Zion Avenue about 11 p.m., San Diego police said.
They took money, keys and cell phones from employees before running away, police said.
The men were described as black, in their mid 20s, about 6 feet tall and 150 pounds, wearing dark clothes. One wore brown boots.
No one was injured.– D.B.
Speeding motorcyclist
loses control, is killed
SAN DIEGO: A speeding motorcyclist was killed in Sabre Springs yesterday morning when he lost control of the motorcycle and hit a tree.
He was identified by the Medical Examiner's Office as Ariestotel Calumba Timbol, 24, a metal plater who lived in Rancho Peñasquitos.
Timbol was believed to be traveling 100 mph or faster on Wimberly Court near Sabre Springs Parkway at 6:45 a.m. when he failed to negotiate a curve, San Diego police Detective Dan Wall said.
The motorcycle and rider slid into a center divide and into the tree, Wall said. No other vehicles were involved, he said. Timbol received a permit for his Suzuki four days earlier, Wall said. –D.B. & K.D.
Man sentenced to 6 years in prison for kidnapping
EAST COUNTY COURTS: A south San Diego man was sentenced to six years in prison yesterday for kidnapping his girlfriend at knifepoint from El Cajon and camping out with her in a tent on the roof of his parent's apartment complex in Nestor for two days in July.
Maynard Whitfield, 20, poses “a serious danger to society,” El Cajon Superior Court Judge Patricia K. Cookson said in sentencing Whitfield to the maximum allowed under the terms of a plea agreement.
In 2007, Whitfield was convicted of trying to kidnap a South Bay high school girl he was dating, the judge said.
Clutching rosary beads and choking back tears, Whitfield's former girlfriend, 21, told the judge, “I just want him to get the proper punishment for what he has done to me and my family.”
Whitfield's lawyer, Deputy Public Defender Karen Hirr, said his former girlfriend was at least partially responsible for what happened, having initiated the relationship through a Web site.
The former girlfriend “was a co-participant in the crime and when I say crime, I say it with quotation marks around it,” Hirr told the judge.
Despite their previous relationship, Whitfield's former girlfriend was held against her will and feared that Whitfield would hurt her or her family, Deputy District Attorney Chantal De Mauregne said. Whitfield hit his girlfriend while keeping her captive, the prosecutor said. –R.H.
Staff writers Mark Arner, Pauline Repard, Debbi Baker, Kristina Davis and Ray Huard contributed to this report.
