A citizen took it upon himself to arrest a suspected carjacker trying to escape from an El Cajon dealership, police say.
At about 12:30 p.m. Monday, Reginald Brown got into a vehicle at a BMW dealership on Lemon Avenue.
An employee climbed into the passenger side to get the suspect out, but Brown refused, according to El Cajon police. Instead, he revved up the car and started to drive it from the dealership – with the employee still inside.
But after Brown hit two parked cars, he decided to take off on foot.
Jack Leary, a former police officer and Vietnam veteran, said he knew something was wrong when he saw the employees with shovels in their hands chasing Brown. He watched as the suspect fled into an alley and came his way.
"He comes flying out of this yard, comes over about two-and-a-half-foot fence and runs up to my car and asks 'Can you get me out of here?' And I said, 'Oh yeah,'" Leary told NBC 7. Leary was driving a vehicle wrapped in police and military appreciation messages.
Brown threw the door open and got in. Leary instructed him to put on his seat belt.
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"And as soon as he put his seat belt on, I reached over and latched onto his left forearm and said, 'You’re under arrest,'" Leary said.
The former officer told Brown to stay perfectly still while he called police.
When officers arrived, they found Leary standing outside his vehicle with Brown still inside, refusing to come out.
"K-9 officer came and said, 'Step out or I'm going to release the dog.' And the guy did not move, and [the officer] let the dog loose, and he saw the light of day then and decided to get out of the car."
Brown was taken to the hospital for a minor dog bite injury, according to El Cajon officers. He will be booked into jail on charges of carjacking and resisting arrest. The dealership employee and Leary were not hurt in the incident.
Leary said his instincts just kicked in when he saw Brown trying to get away. According to the retired cop, the suspect was more concerned with escaping than he was shooting or stabbing him.
But would he recommend others make a similar citizen's arrest?
"No I wouldn’t," Leary said. "If you're not properly trained, then you don’t know how to handle situations. You don’t know what to look for; there are so many things that go into it."
