Hearing Scheduled Over Car Chase

A 21-year-old Camarillo man is scheduled to be arraigned this afternoon in Ventura County Municipal Court on numerous charges stemming from a car chase that ended after deputies shot out the vehicle’s tires.

Josiah Newfang is being held in Ventura County Jail in lieu of $20,000 bail on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon, evading police and resisting arrest.

He is accused of failing to stop when officers tried to pull him over Wednesday night on numerous outstanding warrants. Investigators said officers attempted to arrest Newfang, but said he tried to escape in the car.

After a three-minute chase, Newfang pulled to the side of the road in a Camarillo residential neighborhood. But he again accelerated in a second attempt to escape, and swiped a patrol car and narrowly missed a deputy, authorities said.

Authorities said the deputy fired several shots at the fleeing car and disabled the vehicle’s tires. Newfang then fled on foot, but was found minutes later hiding in a nearby backyard, officials said.

A passenger in the car, 21-year-old Ismael Salomon of Oxnard, gave himself up before Newfang’s second attempt to evade officers, authorities said. They said Salomon was cited and released on suspicion of being under the influence of a controlled substance.

No one was injured in the incident. An internal affairs investigation--required when shots are fired--is underway, deputies said.