SAN JOSE — Authorities have announced the arrest of an alleged accomplice to a carjacking and robbery suspect who shot and wounded a San Jose police sergeant before he was killed last week during a violent downtown clash that ended a multi-county chase that included two earlier police gunfights.
Edward Isaiah Macias was taken into custody in Los Banos in the early morning hours of Jan. 22, according to the U.S. Marshals Service, which first publicly disclosed the arrest Tuesday.
The existence of a reputed accomplice to suspect Mohamed Husien, a 30-year-old Davis resident, was not mentioned at an afternoon news conference held the same day by the San Jose Police Department — more than 10 hours after Macias’ arrest — detailing the injury of its sergeant and officers subsequently shooting, then running over, Husien to end his reported rampage.
With no public acknowledgment by authorities, Macias was charged Friday and arraigned Monday on allegations he participated in a carjacking and robberies in San Jose that preceded the Jan. 21 police chase that ended with Husien’s death, court records show. He is being held without bail in the Elmwood men’s jail in Milpitas.
According to the marshals service, SJPD detectives “immediately identified Macias as Husien’s accomplice who dropped him off at the San Jose car dealership. Sacramento police had identified Macias and Husien as the two suspects who attempted to carjack another dealership at gunpoint three days earlier.”
Suspect Mohamed Husien was shot and killed after committing a couple armed carjackings in San Jose and Hollister and shooting a Sergeant during an attempted third carjacking. (Courtesy San Jose Police Department)
That generally lines up with the public account of the crime spree linked to Husien, a felon who police say stole a red Chevrolet Corvette in Sacramento on Jan. 17.
According to San Jose police, after the Corvette theft in Sacramento, Husien committed robberies at a minimart and a San Jose liquor store on McKee Road. The following day, he was suspected of additional robberies on the Peninsula and at a 7-Eleven on Coleman Avenue in San Jose.
Husien was spotted in the stolen Corvette in San Jose on Jan. 21, but police lost track of him and later found the car abandoned. Around 2 p.m. that day, authorities said Husien stole a green Corvette at gunpoint from a car lot on Capitol Expressway and was followed by a police helicopter as he drove to Hollister.
After the shootouts with police and deputies in Hollister, he commandeered another car at gunpoint and drove back to San Jose — reportedly firing at California Highway Patrol officers along the way — before crashing into another vehicle near Notre Dame Avenue and West Julian Street.
As San Jose police and other law enforcement agencies converged on the site, authorities say Husien rushed a police sergeant who had just arrived and opened fire, touching off a close-range gunfight in which the sergeant was grazed in the head by a bullet. Husien briefly got into the sergeant’s police SUV before running off as dozens of gunshots were fired.
Bystander video shows Husien falling to the ground, and moments later being driven over by a police SUV, which was followed by another volley of police gunfire. Husien was pronounced dead at the scene; the wounded sergeant underwent surgery for a skull fracture and was released the next day.
The criminal complaint against Macias charges him with second-degree robbery in the two San Jose robberies. Macias is also charged with carjacking in connection with the Corvette theft in San Jose, with the complaint alleging he “did take a motor vehicle in the possession of (a) Worker at Capitol Chevrolet, from his/her person and immediate presence and against his/her will by means of force and fear.”
On the night of the shooting, the SJPD Covert Response Unit, joined by the marshals service, tracked Macias to a home in Los Banos. The team of officers monitored the home while awaiting a search warrant, and around 4 a.m. Jan. 22, they took Macias into custody.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.