A 28-year-old man accused of forcing a motorist at gunpoint to lead sheriff’s deputies on a high-speed chase in Mecca is scheduled to be arraigned Thursday on an unrelated felony case.

Gutberto Antonio Rodriguez was arrested last Thursday in North Shore on suspicion of kidnapping and other alleged crimes. He remains behind bars in lieu of $250,000 bail at the Smith Correctional Facility in Banning.

Rodriguez also had a warrant out for his arrest stemming from felony charges filed Aug. 21 — assault with a deadly weapon and shooting at an occupied vehicle, and a misdemeanor count of brandishing a weapon or firearm — involving separate crimes that allegedly occurred in August in Mecca, court papers show. He is scheduled to be arraigned in that case Thursday afternoon.

According to Riverside County Sheriff’s Sgt. Steve Davis, Rodriguez was the subject of a manhunt stemming from the Aug. 18 chase that started when sheriff’s deputies attempted to pull over a car near Lincoln Street and 62nd Avenue in Mecca when Rodriguez — who was a passenger — allegedly held the driver at gunpoint and “instructed the driver to evade deputies.”

The brief high-speed chase was terminated near Avenue 60 and Johnson Street, where Rodriguez ran away and a search ensued, Davis said.

Deputies last Thursday located the suspect in the 101000 block of Sea Breeze Drive in North Shore, where he was taken into custody without incident, the sheriff’s department reported. There was no word on how deputies located him.

No charges had been filed in that case as of Wednesday afternoon.

Rodriguez was convicted of a misdemeanor hit-and-run that resulted in property damage in 2018, but has no documented felony convictions in Riverside County.

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