A 23-year-old man suspected of joining a teenager in carjacking a motorist in Homeland and taking the vehicle into San Bernardino County was behind bars Tuesday.
Andrew Daniel Lopez of Perris was arrested and booked into the Byrd Detention Center in Murrieta Monday on suspicion of carjacking, possession of a concealed firearm and possession of controlled substances.
Lopez is being held on $250,000 bail.
According to the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department, at 3:20 a.m. Monday, Lopez and a male juvenile, whose identity has not been confirmed, allegedly confronted a motorist in the area of Highways 74 and 79.
Sheriff’s Sgt. Dave Tinker said the victim, whose name was not disclosed, was sitting in his 2018 Ford Mustang when one of the suspects brandished a pistol and ordered him to get out, and he complied.
The suspects sped away in the Mustang, and the uninjured motorist called 911.
Tinker said patrol deputies took his information and issued an alert to law enforcement agencies throughout the region to be on the lookout for the Mustang.
Rialto police officers spotted it roughly 10 hours later in the 600 block of Foothill Boulevard, signaling the person at the wheel — Lopez — to pull over, which he did, according to Tinker.
He said that the suspect was taken into custody without incident, and he was “positively identified as one of the armed carjackers.”
The vehicle was processed for evidence and returned to its owner, according to the sergeant.
The whereabouts of the second suspect remain unknown, and no description was provided.
Background information on Lopez was unavailable.