Shootout, Carjacking Might Be Connected

Police are investigating a possible connection between a carjacking that ended in Placentia on Monday and a shootout in Anaheim the day before that left one man dead and two others injured, according to investigators.

One of two carjacking suspects matches the description of the gunman in the Anaheim slaying, said Lt. John Haradon of the Anaheim Police Department.

The carjacking occurred Monday morning in the 1500 block of Benmore Lane in Anaheim when an armed man approached a woman in a light blue Ford Taurus, ordering her out of the car before he drove off.

Later that day, Placentia officers spotted the stolen car and attempted to pull it over, sparking a brief pursuit that ended when the Taurus hit a parked police car and crashed into a house in the 900 block of Tafolla Street.

The driver and a male passenger escaped on foot. Police searched the neighborhood for hours but were unable to locate the men.

Police said they are trying to determine if the carjacker is the same man who shot Anaheim residents Robert Bustamante, Oscar Vallarta and an unidentified man who died from his wounds Sunday night.

That shooting came during a confrontation inside a home.

“We got the report on the carjacking, and we know that [the homicide suspect] was on the run from us, and the description is similar,” Haradon said.

“We’re not rejecting any possibilities.”