Sheriff’s deputies on Thursday arrested a man wanted for robbery following a search and Reverse 911 calls to neighbors, north of Battle Ground.
Deputies were first called at 2 p.m. Wednesday, according to the Clark County Sheriff’s Office, after someone reported seeing two people running from a car that drove into a ditch near Northeast 102nd Avenue and Northeast 320th Street.
Deputies checked the plate and found that the car had been stolen. They also found that those who ran from the vehicle had fled earlier from the Vancouver Police Department, according to the sheriff’s office.
Witnesses who watched the two people running reviewed photos and identified one of them as 23-year-old Rafael Loera-Luna, who was wanted for first-degree robbery and attempting to elude.
Police dogs searched the area and came up empty, the sheriff’s office said. CRESA, the county’s 911 call center, sent a pre-recorded message to residents in the area regarding the search.
At 11 a.m. Thursday, a resident in the 32200 block of Northeast 102nd Avenue, remembering the call from CRESA, reported that a man matching Loera-Luna’s description approached the caller, saying he was lost and in need of a cellphone charger. The caller said that the man was disheveled and shivering.
Responding deputies found Loera-Luna outside a nearby home and then took him into custody. Deputies learned that the other occupant found a ride home the day before.
Loera-Luna was booked on suspicion of the earlier charges, according to the sheriff’s office, and for possession of stolen property.
