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Suspect in Attempted Killing of O.C. Officer Surrenders

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TIMES STAFF WRITER

A Huntington Beach man who police say threatened to kill people at random if authorities didn’t stop searching for him in connection with the attempted murder of a Garden Grove patrolman was arrested Friday.

Jacob T. Marchesano, 25, was taken into custody without incident by Downey police about 1:30 a.m. in the 12800 block of Eastbrook Avenue after investigators who had been in contact with him by telephone were able to persuade him to surrender.

Police say Marchesano was a passenger in a pickup that Garden Grove Police Officer Pat Gildea pulled over late Monday for a traffic violation. Authorities said Marchesano shot at Gildea after fleeing from the pickup. Gildea wasn’t injured.

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The driver of the pickup was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder of a police officer. Marchesano is being held in Orange County Jail on suspicion of the same crime.

The search for Marchesano intensified Thursday after he called investigators and threatened to kill people at random if police didn’t “back off.” He also threatened to kill a police officer.

Authorities said Marchesano, who has a juvenile record of violent crime, called them several times and sounded emotionally unbalanced. It was in one such call that investigators talked him into giving up.

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