Carjacking Ends in Crash

What began as a carjacking at gunpoint in Oxnard ended in a high-speed crash on the Ventura Freeway near Camarillo on Wednesday afternoon when a stolen Cadillac going more than 100 mph spun out of control and smashed into a chain-link fence.

A 15-year-old male suspect, who complained of neck and back pain, was treated for minor injuries at St. John’s Regional Medical Center before being booked into Juvenile Hall on suspicion of carjacking and evading police.

The accident, which occurred shortly before 2 p.m., tied up eastbound traffic on the Ventura Freeway for nearly four hours, and as far away as Vineyard Avenue in Oxnard.

Police said Evelyn Hoskins, 57, had just finished filling up her Eldorado Biarritz at a Chevron station on Ventura Road near Gonzales Road at about 1:20 p.m. when the teenager pointed a handgun at her and demanded the keys.

Hoskins, a Pacific Palisades resident, stepped away from her car, and the gunman hopped in and sped away, heading east on Gonzales Road.

“She was kind of like in a state of shock,” said Oxnard Police Officer Jacob Mueller, who rushed to the scene with another officer after Hoskins phoned authorities.

Another patrol car spotted the luxury coupe cruising down Gonzales toward the intersection of Rose Avenue and gave chase.

“That’s when he decided to take off,” said police spokesman David Keith. “He jumped on the freeway.”

Followed by a police motorcycle, a cruiser and a California Highway Patrol car, the carjacker fled down the Ventura Freeway at speeds of more than 100 mph, said Sgt. Michael Shaw, a CHP spokesman.

About a quarter mile west of the Central Avenue exit near Camarillo, the gunman lost control of the car, sending it into a spin, Shaw said.

“He was going at such a high rate of speed that he just lost control,” Shaw said.

As the car spun, it toppled more than 100 feet of chain-link fence separating the freeway from the frontage road before it stopped with the vehicle’s hood smashed against the barrier.

When police approached the car, authorities said, the Oxnard teenager, whose name was not released because of his age, resisted arrest and officers used pepper spray to subdue him.

Police found a handgun they believe the suspect used in the carjacking about 10 feet from the car on the frontage road. Both front tires of the Cadillac, which the CHP said was an early 1980s model, were punctured and the vehicle’s body was damaged in several places.

Wednesday’s incident comes nearly two months after 65-year-old Mildred Wilson was killed in the parking lot of Ventura’s Poinsettia Mall during a robbery and carjacking. The Ventura County Grand Jury has indicted Alan Brett Holland, a 29-year-old Hollywood resident, in Wilson’s slaying.

Despite Oxnard experiencing many of the county’s major crimes, Keith said the city does not log many carjackings--fewer than five since Jan. 1.

“This is a crime that everyone thinks is happening all over the country, but it doesn’t happen here very much,” Keith said.