Officers detain man driving stolen Sacramento police cruiser after freeway chase
Anthony Gamble, *** N T H O N Y G *** M B L E, spokesman with the Sacramento Police Department. Uh what I can tell you is right around 12:30 this afternoon, officers responded to reports of *** vandalism near Marysville Boulevard in South Avenue. It was initially reported by the caller that *** male who appeared to be homeless, threw an object at her vehicle and then ended up chasing her with *** stick and hit her vehicle window with *** stick. So when the officers got there, they located *** suspect matching the description. When they tried to detain him, the suspect did flee on foot, leading to *** short foot pursuit, and then that suspect did access *** Sacramento police vehicle and then led officers on pursuit. Once the vehicle pursuit was southbound Highway 99, the pursuit was handed over to the California Highway Patrol, who took control of the pursuit. What I can tell you at this time is the pursuit did terminate in Lodi, California, southbound 99, where the suspect did pull over and surrender to officers. At this time, the suspect is in custody. He’s going to be treated at *** hospital just to make sure he doesn’t have any injuries from that vehicle pursuit, and then he will be booked in the Sacramento County Jail for *** number of charges, felony charges relating to this incident. The suspect is 28-year-old Isaac Pavel Paval of Sacramento, has some local criminal history here in Sacramento and is on pretrial probation for *** DUI as well. Um, so at this point, you know, we’re still going to be collecting *** lot of information and trying to figure out what happened. I know there were some questions earlier about whether the suspect accessed *** rifle. That is something that we’re actively investigating. Obviously, if we’re able to confirm that that did in fact happen. The suspect would be, you know, charged with the applicable charges in that regard as well. Not *** lot much more information I have to release at this time. It is very preliminary. We’re extremely grateful that no officers were injured during this incident, and we’re equally grateful for the partnerships with our outside agencies that assisted during this incident. Just *** quick question, it sounds like that he had some kind of medical situation going on. Was it he was dehydrated? Do we know what the status of that is? Obviously with medical stuff. You have to do one step at *** time, but how important is the medical in this situation, especially when it comes to Yes, certainly, I mean, you know, our officers are trained, and I think just across the state officers are trained to provide medical care when it’s safe and feasible to do so, and that’s why that suspect was taken to the hospital. You know, first and foremost we’ve got to make sure that we safely detain that. Person, Obviously this person showed *** propensity to flee from officers and so once that person was safely detained, medical personnel was requested and then they were taken to an area hospital. Again at this point, from this point forward, once that suspect is medically cleared, then he will be transferred transferred back up here to Sacramento and Book County Jail. How was the vehicle disabled? I don’t necessarily think the vehicle was disabled. From what I saw, the vehicle did pull over and the suspect got out of the vehicle. There were some pursuit intervention techniques that were utilized during the pursuit. I don’t have that information released at this time, but it will be part of the investigation. In situations like this also, is it *** good thing to use this further training just to kind of reevaluate and decide what works, what doesn’t work, especially with something like this. I mean this is *** pretty intense thing. Yeah, certainly, you know, I think as an organization, I can’t speak for others, but you know, here at Sacramento Police Department, we’re always looking to see how we can do things better, uh, ways we can be safer, smarter, and so, uh, this is no different than any other, you know, major incident that we respond to. We’re going to evaluate it, see what worked, what didn’t work, and what we could do better moving forward. When it comes to the rifle inside of vehicles or marketing vehicles, is it when this happens, is it easily accessible, or is there like safety locks? There are there are safety locks that are in place. Like I said, whether this rifle was actually removed from the safety lock by the suspect, that will be *** part of the investigation as well. We’ll figure out if that had happened, how it happened, but those weapons that are in the vehicle are locked up. And I’m sorry if I missed this, but I know you’re saying around Marysville Boulevard and South Avenue. I noticed there’s also, you know, *** police facility kind of right in that area too. Was the car that was taken, was that, you know, from *** responding officer or from that facility? It was, it was not from the facility. It was from an officer that was at the call for service, yes. Good question though. I appreciate you asking that. Anything else? No, he hasn’t even been booked into jail yet. He just, he’s at *** hospital being treated, making sure that he’s OK, and then we’ll take him up here to Sacramento County Jail where he’ll be booked. And the woman who was involved in this initial kind of vandalism, I guess too, she wasn’t injured, nothing there. I don’t have any information about her having any injuries, but I know our officers did speak to her, and you know that part of the investigation is still being conducted as well. But I don’t have that information to release at this time. I guess what is the phone call when the when the vehicles when the police officers do *** quick response and leave the vehicles unattended. Well, I don’t think that the vehicles were left unattended. They went to go detain the suspect. The suspect then ran from our officers and so there was *** foot pursuit that ensued during that time and then that suspect got into *** police car and took off. But you know, just like everything else, we’re going to evaluate this, look and see what we could do better, things we can do to be safer and move forward from there. What’s *** protocol when it comes to *** car in pursuit like this? I mean, obviously you don’t want to just chase him. You want to coordinate. I mean, it’s got to take *** lot of detail, yeah, you know, pursuits are such *** unique and dynamic situation, and everyone is so uniquely different, um, you know, you add into the, to, to multiple different components to time of day. The traffic on the roadway, um, how many people are involved in the pursuit, the officer’s familiarity with the with the area where the pursuit’s happening, and then also radio communication. And so unique about this, uh, pursuit, it did go south of the county and so that proves to be some, sometimes, uh, challenging for radio communications and so that’s why we’re extremely grateful for our partners at the California Highway Patrol to take over the pursuit, um, because they have the capabilities to keep that radio communication going, yeah. And is there anything different in *** pursuit where it’s *** car from the police office versus just *** regular car? I mean, do you do anything differently there or is it just *** normal, you know, you’re still following this guy? That’s *** good question. I mean, you know, again, everything is so uniquely different. There’s not really much difference here that it was that it’s *** police car. We were actively engaged in *** vehicle pursuit. There were some pursuit intervention techniques that were attempted from my understanding. Now what agency did that? I don’t have that information at this time. But most importantly, you know, we understand that there’s weapons in *** police car and so those are factors that are going through an officer’s head, you know, any time that something like this happens in *** normal car that may be stolen or taken, there probably isn’t weapons in there or there might not be weapons in there. But we do know that there are weapons in *** police car, so that does prove *** little challenging for us during these situations. I was just going to say in terms of locking the car, is there *** way to like when there’s *** pursuit, shut the car down I mean programs are obviously police cars, I would imagine it’s got to be ey. There’s got to be some ways to lock the car so something like this doesn’t happen. Yes, I don’t have that information to release at this time. Yes, yes. Yeah. All right, I appreciate everybody uh for being here and being patient. Um, as soon as we have more information, I’ll just put it in *** signal, make sure you guys have that as well, OK? Like I said, it’ll probably be *** couple of hours before the suspect is, uh, is booked into the jail. Thanks. All right, thank you.
Officers detain man driving stolen Sacramento police cruiser after freeway chase
Updated: 4:06 PM PDT Jun 19, 2026
Law enforcement officials detained a man suspected of vandalism who stole a Sacramento Police Department patrol vehicle Friday afternoon, officials said. Sacramento police said officers just after 12:30 p.m. went to Marysville Boulevard and South Avenue for a report of vandalism in the area. A caller told police that a homeless person threw a bucket at her tire, and the man chased her with a large stick. Police said the man then hit the caller’s window with a stick. When officers tried to detain the man, he managed to escape and drove off in a marked cruiser, prompting a pursuit. The California Highway Patrol took over the chase, which continued onto the freeway before ending in the Lodi area.At 1:36 p.m., officers were seen chasing the stolen vehicle going southbound on Highway 99 in the Galt area of Sacramento County. Minutes later, a CHP officer tried catching up to the stolen cruiser, presumably to do a PIT maneuver.At 1:42 p.m., one of the officers tried a PIT in the Lodi area of San Joaquin County, hitting the back of the stolen cruiser. It did not stop the driver, and they kept fleeing. There appears to be rear-end bumper damage now on the vehicle.At 1:47 p.m., a CHP cruiser hits the back of the stolen vehicle, but it does not stop the vehicle. About a minute later, the man motions his hands out of the vehicle, lets the cruiser slow down, and then he gets out of the vehicle and lies on the ground.Officers circle him and take him into custody on the highway near Turner Road. Southbound Highway 99 lanes were temporarily blocked but have since reopened.The man in custody as 28-year-old Isaac Paval, who police said has a criminal history in Sacramento and is on pretrial probation for a DUI. Sacramento Police spokesperson Anthony Gamble said Paval is in the hospital for treatment and will be booked into Sacramento County Main Jail for multiple felony charges related to the pursuit. Gamble said the incident is under investigation including the possibility of Paval allegedly possessing a rifle. No officers were injured in the incident. Watch the full chase in the video player belowSee news happening? Send us your photos or videos if it’s safe to do so at kcra.com/upload.See more coverage of top California stories here | Download our app | Subscribe to our morning newsletter | Find us on YouTube here and subscribe to our channel | Make KCRA a preferred news source in Google
Law enforcement officials detained a man suspected of vandalism who stole a Sacramento Police Department patrol vehicle Friday afternoon, officials said.
Sacramento police said officers just after 12:30 p.m. went to Marysville Boulevard and South Avenue for a report of vandalism in the area. A caller told police that a homeless person threw a bucket at her tire, and the man chased her with a large stick.
Police said the man then hit the caller’s window with a stick. When officers tried to detain the man, he managed to escape and drove off in a marked cruiser, prompting a pursuit.
The California Highway Patrol took over the chase, which continued onto the freeway before ending in the Lodi area.
At 1:36 p.m., officers were seen chasing the stolen vehicle going southbound on Highway 99 in the Galt area of Sacramento County. Minutes later, a CHP officer tried catching up to the stolen cruiser, presumably to do a PIT maneuver.
At 1:42 p.m., one of the officers tried a PIT in the Lodi area of San Joaquin County, hitting the back of the stolen cruiser. It did not stop the driver, and they kept fleeing. There appears to be rear-end bumper damage now on the vehicle.
At 1:47 p.m., a CHP cruiser hits the back of the stolen vehicle, but it does not stop the vehicle. About a minute later, the man motions his hands out of the vehicle, lets the cruiser slow down, and then he gets out of the vehicle and lies on the ground.
Officers circle him and take him into custody on the highway near Turner Road. Southbound Highway 99 lanes were temporarily blocked but have since reopened.
The man in custody as 28-year-old Isaac Paval, who police said has a criminal history in Sacramento and is on pretrial probation for a DUI.
Sacramento Police spokesperson Anthony Gamble said Paval is in the hospital for treatment and will be booked into Sacramento County Main Jail for multiple felony charges related to the pursuit.
Gamble said the incident is under investigation including the possibility of Paval allegedly possessing a rifle.
No officers were injured in the incident.
Watch the full chase in the video player below
See news happening? Send us your photos or videos if it’s safe to do so at kcra.com/upload.
See more coverage of top California stories here | Download our app | Subscribe to our morning newsletter | Find us on YouTube here and subscribe to our channel | Make KCRA a preferred news source in Google