[Update: 2:29 p.m.] In a conversation with The Malibu Times, Captain Garo Kuredjian of the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office clarified details surrounding the car chase.
The office received a call around 1:45 a.m. Monday morning concerning a burglary in progress in the 12000 block of Yerba Buena Road. Kuredjian said, “…[it] came in that someone on the property armed himself with a gun. Where he went out there [outside the home], there was someone burglarizing his property.”
That same person—Carl Wilson—fired a warning shot to detain the suspect. After being unsuccessful, there was some sort of altercation when the victim lost control of his gun. The suspect obtained the gun and tried to shoot; the victim, dodging bullets, went back into the house to retrieve another gun.
During this time, the suspect left in his vehicle. He travelled down Pacific Coast Highway, from Yerba Buena Road to Zume Beach (“around lifeguard tower 3 or 4,” Kuredjian said).
It was at this time that a traffic collision occurred between the victim—who had been following along in his own vehicle—and the suspect.
The LA County Sheriff’s department sent in ground and air support to search for the suspect, whose vehicle was found “a short distance away on Bush Drive.”
“We don’t know if the suspect left [the car] independent of the ATV,” Kuredjian said.
Ventura Sheriff’s Office investigators were at the scene earlier this morning looking for details and clues.
Kuredjian could not confirm the City of Malibu’s alert, which said that the suspect was no longer in the Malibu area.
The investigation is active and ongoing.
[Update: 12:40 p.m.] The City of Malibu released an alert Monday afternoon stating local sheriff’s deputies do not believe the suspected burglar is in the Malibu area.
“Sheriff’s investigators have credible information that burglary suspect in pre-dawn incident that started in Ventura County is no longer in #Malibu area,” the alert, sent out shortly after 12:30 p.m., reads.
The Ventura and Los Angeles county sheriff’s departments are on the lookout for a suspect in an alleged burglary-turned-violent that occurred just over the county line in Ventura County early Monday morning, Nov. 20, with a chase ending near Zuma Beach here in Malibu.
According to what the victim, Carl Wilson, told Fox 11 News, there was a burglar in his front yard around 1:45 a.m. Monday whom Wilson approached while wielding a gun.
“I went over to his vehicle with the gun and I made an ignorant move and got a little too close and he put his hands on the gun,” Wilson told the television news crew, “and he wrestled the gun from me and he started shooting at me.”
The suspect then fired three rounds at the homeowner, who went into his house to arm himself again and set off in search of the alleged burglar.
“When I got close enough he started leaning out the window—like a bank robber—and shooting at me out the window of his car right here on PCH,” Wilson said.
Eventually, Wilson managed to rear-end the vehicle while driving along PCH at Zuma Beach, disabling his own truck, and the suspect fled.
According to Fox 11, the suspect’s pickup was found crashed on Busch Drive. It is suspected he fled on an ATV that had been in the truck bed.
“I hate bad people and I don’t want them to get away and I’ll do whatever it takes to keep them from getting away, I don’t care,” Wilson told Fox 11.
The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Lost Hills Station would not comment on the incident, directing calls to the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department.
Ventura County Sheriff’s spokespeople were not available to speak.