Man Charged in Wild Police Chase Through Fountain Valley

A 27-year-old man pleaded not guilty today to multiple felonies charging him with shooting another man with a pellet gun last month and then leading police on a chase through Fountain Valley and neighboring Orange County cities.

Westley Alvarez was charged with two counts of assault with a deadly weapon or force likely to produce great bodily injury and one count each of grand theft auto with a prior conviction, theft with a prior felony conviction of driving or stealing a vehicle, buying or receiving a stolen vehicle with a prior felony conviction, evading a police while recklessly driving, evading police while driving against traffic and driving under the influence of a drug causing injury, all felonies. He is also charged with misdemeanor possession of drug paraphernalia.

On Sept. 26, Alvarez got in a dispute with another man he knew from their neighborhood in Santa Ana, according to Santa Ana police Cpl. Anthony Bertagna. The victim asked Alvarez if he had broken into his car earlier, prompting the defendant to get out of a vehicle he had allegedly stolen, retrieve a BB gun from the trunk and then shoot the other man with it multiple times from six or seven feet away, Bertagna said.

Later that day, Alvarez came back to the victim’s home and allegedly tried to run him over in the stolen Honda Accord, according to Roxi Fyad of the Orange County District Attorney’s Office.

The victim took a picture of the stolen car and its license plate as the suspect drove away in it, Bertagna said.

Santa Ana police spotted the car on Monday and when officers tried to pull it over a chase was triggered through Santa Ana, Fountain Valley and Garden Grove, Bertagna said. At one point, the defendant was driving on the wrong side of the road, Fyad said.

Alvarez was also allegedly high when he led police on the chase, Bertagna said.

He was ordered to return to court Oct. 22 for a pretrial hearing.

City News Service