Merced man accused of stalking, assault and making criminal threats, police say
A Merced man was arrested Thursday night after menacing a woman, using his car to force her off the road and slashing her tires, according to police.
Jaime Guevara, 35, was arrested by officers from the Merced Police Department on suspicion of stalking, making criminal threats, assault with a deadly weapon and being a prohibited person in possession of a firearm, according to a Facebook post from Merced police.
Officers were called to the area of E. Olive Avenue and G Street around 9 p.m. after Guevara’s ex-girlfriend called police and alleged that Guevara was aggressively following her in his car through the commercial parking lots near the intersection.
He used his car to chase her down E. Olive Avenue and ran her off the road, where the victim became boxed in by Guevara’s car and other parked vehicles in the Rite Aid parking lot, police said in the Facebook post.
Guevara got out of his car and slashed the woman’s tires with a pocket knife, police said, then went back to his car to get a rifle out of the back. He walked back towards the woman’s car. She rammed Guevara’s vehicle, then got out of the car and ran.
Police went on to say that the woman alleged that Guevara had been texting her threatening messages for weeks before he attacked her on Thursday night.
Officers found him at the house of a family member in the 3000 block of Sycamore Drive and arrested him. During a search of the house, Officer Tucker Zazueta and his K-9 partner Zeke found a .308 semi-automatic rifle and ammunition underneath Guevara’s bed.
Guevara was booked in the Merced County Jail on $395,000 bond. According to the Merced County Jail Register, he faces charges of possession of a controlled substance, brandishing or exhibiting a weapon, vandalism, stalking, making criminal threats, being a prohibited person in possession of a firearm, being a felon in possession of a firearm and assault with a deadly weapon.
Anyone with further information about this crime is urged to contact Officer Alejandro Arias at 209-385-6905 or ariasa@cityofmerced.org.