Woman Shot in Failed Carjacking Faces Drug Charge

A 41-year-old Colorado woman shot in the chest during an attempted carjacking in the drive-through lane of a fast-food restaurant in Ontario was herself arrested by police on Thursday after drugs and weapons were found in her truck, authorities said.

Ontario Police Detective Mike Macias identified the victim-turned-suspect as Josephine L. Coulter, 41, of Colorado Springs. She underwent surgery at Loma Linda University Medical Center and was then arrested by Ontario police and transferred to San Bernardino County Hospital, where she was in stable condition.

The attempted carjacking was followed Thursday afternoon by an unrelated carjacking in nearby Upland in which a 45-year-old woman was attacked as she got into her 1991 Ford station wagon at a shopping mall. The two teen-age assailants tied up the woman, whose name was not released, threw her in the back of her car and drove away.

Detective Jeff Mendenhall of the Upland Police Department said the two suspects drove to a K mart store in Montclair where store security officers suspected that they might be about to shoplift and alerted Montclair police.

But the suspects left the store without taking anything, drove away and were stopped by Montclair police, who “found the woman in the rear uninjured but very shaken up,” Mendenhall said.

The two suspects, from Pomona, were booked for investigation of kidnaping, robbery and auto theft. One, Gregory White, 19, was also held for a probation violation. The other, a juvenile, was turned over to San Bernardino County juvenile authorities.

The attempted carjacking in Ontario was thwarted after the assailant was held at bay by the woman’s German shepherd-mix dog, Macias said.

The attempted carjacking and the possession of narcotics and weapons were apparently unrelated, he added.

The incident occurred Wednesday night when Coulter, in a drive-through line of a popular hamburger joint, was approached by a man who said he admired her black pickup. He returned, asked to buy the vehicle and, when Coulter refused, displayed a small-caliber handgun, authorities said.

“The victim either did not move fast enough or refused to get out” and was shot once in the chest, Macias said. Apparently deterred by the dog, the assailant fled to a nearby car and left.

Coulter was taken to the hospital for surgery. Investigators, meanwhile, discovered a pound of methamphetamines, half a pound of marijuana, more than $10,000 in cash and two semiautomatic handguns in her vehicle, Macias said.

Police were expected to book Coulter on narcotics and weapons charges, Macias said.

The would-be carjacker, meanwhile, remains at large, and police said they were shaken by the fact that a car thief stalked his victim in a drive-through restaurant lane.

“Normal, everyday people are now wondering: Where can we go and be safe?” Macias said. “We’re experiencing carjackings on the same kind of regular basis as the rest of Southern California.

“And what we’re finding is that, with the increase in anti-theft devices--the Club and auto alarms--crooks are trying to find new ways of stealing cars, and unfortunately for us, they’re doing it while we are in the cars.”