MADERA (KMJ) — All three suspects identified in the Madera ride-along shooting have been arrested.
James Cruz was a passenger in the vehicle from which shots were fired at a Madera PD patrol car early Sunday morning. He was apprehended Friday evening – the final one of the three to be placed into custody.
“They tried to stop this vehicle, the vehicle traveling down the road ended up firing 14 shots at our patrol vehicle”, explained Police Chief Steve Frazier.
He headed up the announcement Wednesday morning while surrounded by those involved in the case, including Yesica Valencia who was the civilian in the car which was fired at.
“The individual we’ve identified as our shooter, his name is Thomas Matthew Garcia…then our driver of the vehicle is Serena Arroyo”.
He added the ride-along policy will be adhered to more closely, and a seven hour cap on civilians in patrol cars with officers will be implemented.
One of the questions following Chief Frazier’s remarks asked if the involvement of a Madera PD officer in this investigation changed how the case was handled.
“We talked about that this morning. Every case is dependent upon information that’s there. We work a case as stringently, whether it’s our brother or sister in law enforcement or whether its the family of a homicide victim. We do our due diligence every time to solve that case.
“In this instance there was a great deal of evidence that was left for us to operate and move on. Any other case that we had, if we had the amount of evidence that we had on this we would solve every case”.
