[Cmdr. Kim Nida, Placerville Police Department]
Placerville, CA – Four Fresno residents were taken into custody after burglarizing the Placerville Polaris.
On January 31, 2017 at 4:28 a.m., the Placerville Police Department received a 9-1-1 call advising that someone was breaking into the Placerville Polaris at 673 Placerville Drive. The reporting party gave a description of the suspect vehicle as it left the business. Within two minutes of receiving the 9-1-1 call, Placerville Police Officers located the vehicle on Canal Street and Highway 50. As the vehicle turned onto westbound Highway 50, the driver failed to yield to officer’s lights and a pursuit was initiated. The pursuit continued westbound on Highway 50, taking the El Dorado Road exit. The vehicle came to a stop at Echo Lane off of El Dorado Road. Four out of five suspects jumped out of the vehicle and started running in multiple directions. A fifth suspect stayed in the vehicle and was arrested immediately. With the assistance of El Dorado County Sheriff’s Office and the California Highway Patrol, three of the four outstanding suspects were located by 5 am and taken into custody without incident.
During the investigation, Placerville Police Officers learned that the suspects gained entry into Placerville Polaris through the front door after breaking it with an ax. The business had approximately $9500 worth of property stolen, including chain saws and generators. All the property was located and returned to the business. It was discovered during the investigation that the suspect vehicle was stolen out of Manteca, CA and four of the five suspects resided in Fresno, CA. The fifth suspect’s identity and whereabouts is not known at this time.
The four suspects, later identified as Shawn Stewart (DOB 10/21/88), Stacey Brown (DOB 11/12/65), Alex Panoo Jr (DOB 7/12/72) and James Stanley (DOB 1/30/63) were booked into the El Dorado County jail for multiples charges including Failure to Yield- 2800.2 CVC, Burglary- 459 PC, Conspiracy to Commit a Crime- 182 PC, Resisting an Officer- 148(a) PC, and Stolen Vehicle- 10851(a) CVC. An additional charge of a Parole Violation- 3056 PC was added to Panoo’s charges after learning he was on parole.
A local citizen Dee Dee Schamun added, "I listened to this live. The quick response of Officer Ron Cannon, first officer on chase, calling out the status allowing the coordination of EDSO and CHP was incredible! These first responders litterly chased these guys down and doubled back to pick up discarded items on hwy 50 that the suspects thew out while driving 80 plus mph! Thank you and God bless you all."
