An LAPD helicopter circles the skies above Los Angeles. Photo by John Schreiber.
Two 18-year-old men have been arrested in connection with a series of burglaries of schools in West Covina, police said Tuesday.
Officers responded just before 11 p.m. Sunday to a burglar alarm at Orangewood Elementary School, 1440 S. Orange Ave., and saw one suspect running through the campus, according to West Covina police Public Information Officer Rudy Lopez.
The area was surrounded and, with assistance from a sheriff’s helicopter, a second suspect was spotted hiding in a grass field, but the first suspect who had been seen running was not found, Lopez said.
“Officers searched the school and found several broken windows to classrooms where a pellet gun was used,” Lopez said. “Computers were taken from within the classrooms. Two pellet guns were also found on the roof of one classroom. Further investigation led officers to a vehicle owned by the detained suspect where several computers belonging to the school were located.”
The investigation led detectives to the outstanding suspect, who was contacted and turned himself in on Monday night, Lopez said.
“The suspect brought with him computers stolen from the school burglary,” Lopez said, adding that investigators linked the two young men to four other previously reported burglaries — three at West Covina High School, 1609 E. Cameron Ave., on April 22, May 19 and May 28, and one on June 1 at California Elementary School, 1125 W. Bainbridge Ave., Lopez said.
The arrested suspects were identified as Carlos Rene Martinez of Baldwin Park and Mario Isaac Madrid of West Covina, both of whom were booked on suspicion of burglary with bail set at $20,000 apiece, Lopez said.
–City News Service
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