Pasadena Police Chief Recaps Recent Critical Incidents

Editor’s Note: In this report, Pasadena Chief of Police Phillip Sanchez reviews noteworthy incidents which occurred or were concluded in recent weeks in Pasadena.

On April 15, at about 6:10 p.m., the Pasadena Police Department received several calls reporting shots fired in the area of Los Robles Avenue and Adena Street. While uniformed officers were responding to the incident, they received additional calls of a traffic collision near Los Robles Avenue and Mountain Street. On arrival, officers conducted the traffic collision investigation and canvassed the area for evidence of a shooting. Uniformed officers received and documented several witness statements, which subsequently lead to solid evidentiary leads. Special Enforcement Section (SES) officers and detectives developed the leads and identified Michael McCray (Male Black adult) as the shooter. Search warrants were secured and on May 5, McCray was arrested without incident by FAU and SIU operators. During the warrant service, detectives and officers also recovered a handgun and ammunition. McCray was booked at the Pasadena jail on several charges. The case will be presented to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office early this week. Like many of the shootings in our community, this particular case was very complex and required a great deal of follow-up investigation. McCray is in custody as the result of some great police work.

On April 30, at about 10:00 p.m., two 18-year old females were waiting at a bus stop near Fair Oaks Avenue and Montana Street in Pasadena when they were offered a ride by a male in an older pick-up truck. After some coaxing by the driver, the women accepted the offer. The women soon noticed that the suspect was not driving them to the direction they requested. As the suspect drove onto the 210 freeway on-ramp at Mountain Street, one of the female victims (in the front passenger seat) opened the vehicle door and jumped from the moving truck. A passerby saw the victim fall onto the pavement and called 9-1-1. The victim suffered a fractured ankle and was later transported to a local hospital. A short time later, a CHP officer contacted the female on the 110 Freeway near Olympic Boulevard (in Los Angeles) believing she was involved in a hit-and-run collision. The CHP officer later learned the female was kidnapped from Pasadena. LAPD officers responded to the 110 Freeway and transported the second victim to the Pasadena Police Department. Pasadena Police officers learned the suspect had brandished a handgun, demanded sex, and threatened to kill the second victim while she was inside his vehicle.

Pasadena Police detectives immediately began an intensive investigation and discovered the suspect (Anthony Seth McDaniel, Male Black, 38 years, Compton res.) was a parolee outfitted with a GPS monitoring device. He was on active parole for Assault to Commit Mayhem following a 2008 conviction for PC 220. On May 4, McDaniel was arrested without incident by the United States Marshal’s Pacific Southwest Fugitive Taskforce. He was booked for kidnapping for the purpose of sexual assault. The case was presented to the Los Angeles District Attorney’s office on May 6, and McDaniel remains in custody at the Los Angeles County jail. His bail is set at $2,000,000.00. Of special note – McDaniel was arrested 90 hours after the initial kidnapping incident. This case underscores the talents, experience, and dedication of our Pasadena Police officers and detectives. Their robust relationship with other law enforcement agencies led to the quick arrest of an obvious predator.

On April 25, at about 12:42 p.m., suspect Nunez committed a theft from Target (3121 East Colorado Boulevard). Loss prevention personnel identified the suspect as a person who had committed previous thefts of razor blades at both Target stores in the city. Pasadena Police Officer DeCaro had handled some of the previous theft reports, had viewed video of the suspect, and had seen Detective Riehl’s want flyer depicting Nunez. Officer DeCaro located suspect Nunez in the area of Target. He arrested Nunez after he was positively identified during a field show-up. Officer DeCaro transported Nunez to the PPD station and notified Detective Riehl of the arrest. Officer DeCaro and Detective Riehl Mirandized and interviewed Nunez and he admitted to committing several thefts from the Target stores.

On April 30, 2016 at about 12:50 pm., Officer Armendariz was checking illegal lodging transients in the area of Rosemead Boulevard and the 210 freeway. He contacted several subjects. Raymond Towns was one of those subjects. Officer Armendariz was aware that Detective McKinney had distributed a want flyer for a burglary that occurred at Dewey Pest Control. Officer Armendariz recognized the photo on the flyer; as he has had numerous contacts with Towns. Officer Armendariz arrested Towns without incident. Detective McKinney was notified of the arrest.

On May 4, at about 6:11 p.m., Pasadena Police Helicopter was conducting routine patrol when the flight crew observed a motorcyclists traveling at an excessive rate of speed in the area of Sunset Avenue and Washington Boulevard. The air crew began tracking the cyclists (who continued to ride recklessly), directing patrol officers to the 2300 block of Vista Laguna Terrace. PPD officers contacted the subject and discovered he had a loaded pistol tucked into his waistband. The suspect was arrested without incident and subsequently booked at the PPD jail. Great proactive police work by the Pasadena Police Air Crew and ground units to remove another loaded firearm from our community.

On May 8, at about 2:49 a.m. Pasadena Police officers responded to West Drive near Seco Street regarding a single car traffic collision. On arrival officers learned that a silver 2002 BMW 330i was being driven by a 17 year old White Male (Pasadena Res), south on West Drive when he struck a light pole. The driver and sole occupant sustained fatal injuries as a result of the collision. He was pronounced deceased at the scene. No other cars were involved in the accident. Pasadena Police Department’s Major Accident Investigating Team responded to investigate the incident. The identity of the driver is currently being withheld pending notification to the family. Our investigation, of this tragic incident, is ongoing.

This week in Pasadena was extremely busy. However, PPD supervisors, officers, employees and volunteers remain proactive to prevent crime, arrest predators, and assist the community. Of course there were other noteworthy incidents involving our first responders, however, I could not include them all in this distribution. You may be interested in other call for service, which can be seen on our webpage at: http://www.cityofpasadena.net/police/callsforservice.aspx. As a reminder incidents included in the Touching Base message are selected at random.