CRIME : LoJack Nabs Attempted Murder Suspect
A car-tracking device led sheriff’s deputies not just to the stolen vehicle but to a suspect in a robbery and attempted murder.
The arrest followed a noon carjacking Sunday in Pasadena in which four carjackers using a semiautomatic weapon forced a 60-year-old man out of his 1994 GMC Suburban in front of the Ralph’s supermarket at 160 N. Lake Ave. The Suburban was equipped with the LoJack car-tracking system. Six hours later, authorities tracked the system’s signal to Bell Gardens.
After a brief pursuit, deputies arrested Jae Kong, 25, residence unknown; Young Lee, 26, and Melissa Gomez, 19, both of Los Angeles, and a 13-year-old girl, said Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Investigator Mark Calderon.
The men were being held at Los Angeles County Jail; Gomez is at Sybil Brand Institute for Women and the juvenile is at Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall.
Kong, who authorities say may not be giving his real name, was wanted in connection with an Oct. 13 robbery in Bell Gardens that left two of the three robbery victims with gunshot wounds. Along with three accomplices, none of whom was involved in the carjacking, he is suspected of robbing three people inside a hotel room at the Fiesta Inn, authorities said.
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