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May 14, 2008 - 8:10AM
Chandler police arrest 3 following fight
Comments | RecommendGary Grado, Tribune
Three men were arrested over night after robbing and assaulting a group of people in Chandler and leading police across town to a Phoenix neighborhood.
According to detective Frank Mendoza, Chandler police spokesman, police responded to a call of fight at East Chandler Boulevard and North Exeter Street, which is between Arizona Avenue and McQueen Road, and found four people lying in the street.
The suspects took off in a car as police arrived. Mario O. Ochoa, 30, Manuel M. Ortiz, 36, and Robert C. Medina, 27, were later booked on suspicion of two counts each of armed robbery and aggravated assault and four counts each of kidnapping.
Two of the people in the street were hospitalized, according to Mendoza.
Chandler police chased the car through neighborhoods and tried to use stop sticks, strips of spikes officers throw into the road to blow out tires of fleeing vehicles.
A Mesa police helicopter joined the chase and spotted the car at U.S. 60 and Loop 101.
“Once the helicopter came on scene, we backed off,” Mendoza said.
With patrol cars near and the chopper above, the car went to a neighborhood near 24th Street and Broadway Road in Phoenix where the suspects bailed out.
Officers arrested one man immediately and followed the other two to 2620 E. Southgate Ave., where they barricaded themselves inside with a family.
Mendoza said a state Department of Public Safety SWAT team arrived and got the family out safely. The SWAT team eventually went inside and arrested the two men.
Residents of the home said the two men were friends of a relative of theirs.
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