Man Sought in Slaying Flees, Kidnaps Driver

A man wanted for questioning in a Carlsbad slaying eluded police in a National City shopping mall Tuesday and then kidnaped a bystander and commandeered his van, police said.

Ramon A. Estrella, 25, left the motorist unharmed and with the van near the Camino del Rio shopping center in Carlsbad, said Lt. Merlin Wilson of the Chula Vista Police Department.

Chula Vista police got involved in the case because Estrella is a transient who is believed to stay mostly in Chula Vista, Wilson said. Carlsbad police said the unidentified slaying victim is also believed to be from Chula Vista.

The victim’s body was found at 11 a.m. Sunday by a jogger in the 1900 block of Palomar Oaks Way in a light-industrial area, Carlsbad police Lt. Michael Shipley said. The man, believed to be in his early 20s, had been shot and his body set on fire, Shipley said.

Estrella is believed to have been acquainted with the victim, Shipley said.

Estrella, who was armed with a handgun, was spotted by police at about noon Tuesday in the parking lot near the May Co. store in the Plaza Bonita shopping mall on Plaza Bonita Road, said National City police Officer Keith Cochenour.

“We saw him, he saw us and took off running,” Wilson said.

Estrella tried to take an elderly person’s car at gunpoint, but when the motorist balked, he went on to a second man, Cochenour said. National City police are in charge of the attempted robbery, robbery and kidnaping portion of the case, he said.

The kidnaped motorist, whose identity was not released, was left with his car unharmed about 1:25 p.m., Shipley said.