CLOVIS, CA (KMJ) – Two gang members are arrested for auto theft after running from officers, and hiding in a Clovis hotel.
Just before 7:30 a.m. Tuesday morning, Clovis Police Officers located a stolen vehicle in the parking lot of the Hilton Garden Inn Hotel near Sylmar and Shaw in Clovis.
Two men were inside a Honda that police said was stolen out of Fresno.
Both ran from the vehicle and began jumping fences.
As officers began searching the area, someone called dispatch with the location of one man.
30-year-old Fresno resident Marcelino Ramirez was arrested outside an apartment near Peach and Alamos.
Officers saw the second man run into a 3-story hotel under construction near Helm and Shaw.
After surrounding the hotel and evacuating the construction crews, Police and K-9s began searching the motel for more than an hour.
Officers located 30-year-old Fresno resident Joseph Romer hiding in a storage room inside the hotel.
He peacefully surrendered to the officers.
Both Ramirez and Romer were taken into custody without incident, and booked at the Fresno County Jail for outstanding warrants, auto theft charges, and a probation violation.
Clovis Police said the Fresno County H.E.A.T. (Help Eliminate Auto Theft) team and the Fresno County Sheriff’s deputies assisted in their investigation.
