Local News in Brief : Santa Ana : Help Asked in Finding Crime Spree Suspect

Santa Ana police Monday released a photograph of a 32-year-old man suspected of conducting a daylong crime spree in the city July 12.

Police are seeking the public’s help in finding the suspect whom they identified as Johnny Lee Mills, a former convict linked to several robberies in Southern California and Arizona, police spokeswoman Maureen Thomas said.

The spree began in the morning when police in Santa Ana attempted to pull over a stolen car with three occupants. Mills was driving the car and opened fire on officers, police said. The car sped away with officers in pursuit. Shots were exchanged during the chase and Mills, though wounded, continued to flee, commandeering a utility repair truck, police said. He then kidnaped a woman from her apartment and drove off in her car, leaving her on a street corner and then robbing a Placentia bank, police said.

Mills is considered “armed and extremely dangerous,” Thomas said, adding that investigators believe that Mills is staying in a motel somewhere in Orange County.

He is described as white, 5 feet, 11 inches tall, 135 pounds, with light brown hair and hazel eyes. Mills may have shaved off his mustache, police said.