Witnesses Nab Man Wanted in Slayings

A convicted rapist wanted in the probable killings of two people in Washington state and one in San Bernardino County was arrested Monday after he tried to carjack a woman in Victorville and was tackled and hogtied by two newspaper employees, authorities said.

The capture of John Wayne Thomson, 46, comes after a four-day manhunt across the West Coast, launched Friday after San Bernardino County sheriff’s officials accused him of killing Charles Ray Hedlund, 55, of Lucerne Valley.

Hedlund disappeared last week while returning from a trip to Las Vegas, where he apparently won at least $6,000. His bloodstained pickup truck and body were later found off Interstate 15 in the Cajon Pass, not far from an abandoned car Thomson allegedly stole when he fled Washington.

Washington state and FBI officials suspect Thomson in the death of 36-year-old Lori Hamm of Longview, Wash., whose body was found last week, and the July disappearance of 73-year-old James Ehrgott of Spokane.

Washington investigators had been searching for Thomson for several weeks and were working closely with San Bernardino County and Riverside County law enforcement agencies after he tried to contact a former girlfriend last month in Riverside County.

Thomson was arrested by San Bernardino County sheriff’s deputies shortly after a one-day string of violent carjacking attempts near the Daily Press newspaper building in Victorville, authorities said.

The assaults began Monday afternoon, when Thomson allegedly beat an elderly man with a hammer and stole his car, and for unknown reasons tried to carjack another car a short distance away but was thwarted when the driver locked the doors, said San Bernardino County sheriff’s spokeswoman Cindy Beavers.

When Thomson allegedly attacked a third driver, in the parking lot of the Cask ‘n Cleaver restaurant, two pressmen who were on a smoke break from Victorville’s Daily Press newspaper nearby heard the woman scream.

Rey Bantug, 34, and Joe Iskandar, 27, rushed to help when they saw Thomson dragging the woman out of the car by her hair. Thomson was in the car when Bantug and Iskandar grabbed the door, pried it open and hauled Thomson out, they said.

Iskandar pinned Thompson’s head to the car. Bantug kicked him to the ground and ran back to the newspaper building for zip ties, thick pieces of plastic the men used to bind Thomson’s hands.

“Hope you guys feel good about yourselves,” Iskandar said the fugitive told him. “You just caught one of the most wanted people here.”

After authorities arrived, the men went back to work. They said they had no idea they had nabbed an alleged killer until Daily Press reporters came to interview them.

News of the arrest brought a small measure of comfort to friends of Hedlund, who went missing early last week when he was driving home from his four-day vacation in Las Vegas.

Albert Herrera, who has co-owned Beaumont Marble & Granite with Hedlund for three years, said Hedlund was returning home after winning $6,000 to $10,000 and was so thrilled by his luck that he decided to extend his trip a day.

A friend who accompanied him drove home in a separate car.

Early last week, Herrera said, Hedlund called one of the employees at the company, which Hedlund ran in addition to his own CPA firm, and said he would return that Tuesday.

Herrera said employees immediately knew something was wrong when Hedlund did not show up at work Wednesday. That’s because Hedlund didn’t “go anywhere without telling somebody,” Herrera said, and often carried two cellphones and a Nextel walkie-talkie phone.

Herrera said it had been difficult for employees at the company to concentrate this week as they waited for news.

“We really miss him.... You just kind of feel his presence here,” Herrera said in a telephone interview Monday from Beaumont. “He was always cheerful, willing to help.”

San Bernardino County sheriff’s officials said Thomson may have sought out Hedlund as a vulnerable target. Herrera said Hedlund relied heavily on a cane because of hip pain.

A woman who answered the phone at Hedlund’s residence said family members did not wish to speak to reporters.

“We are all in agony,” the woman said.

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The Associated Press contributed to this report.