By Lolita Harper And Joe Nelson, San Bernardino Sun (California)
The cacophony of metal screeching against asphalt, shotgun blasts and the constant thud of a helicopter overhead Friday capped the high-drama manhunt for a man suspected of kidnapping at least three women and raping two during a five-day crime spree.
Royce Timmons of San Bernardino was arrested at 16th Street and Mount Vernon Avenue after he crashed and rolled a white sport utility vehicle stolen from the Moss Bros. dealership in Colton, San Bernardino police said.
Timmons, a 46-year-old facing his third strike, is suspected of stabbing his girlfriend, carjacking two women and raping two women. Police said he was captured Friday afternoon after leading them on a short chase.
The crimes from the previous days spanned several cities, attracting the attention of law enforcement agencies that actively searched for Timmons.
At 1:23 p.m. Friday, deputies from the sheriff’s Fontana station were sent to a carjacking site at the 7-Eleven on Cedar and Slover avenues, sheriff’s Detective Frank Root said.
A San Diego woman had pulled over to adjust the cargo straps on her white, flatbed truck when a man, believed to be Timmons, asked if she needed help, Root said. She told him no and he jumped in her truck and nearly ran her over when he took off.
A short time later, a similar call came from Colton police, who reported that a vehicle was stolen from Moss Bros.
The second carjacking was not far from the location where the San Diego woman’s truck had been recovered, Root said.
“We put our heads together and figured we were all looking for the same guy,” Root said. “We also figured he would be coming back to the Fontana, Bloomington area.”
The stolen SUV was spotted on Base Line, police said.
Two people rode in the stolen white SUV, said San Bernardino police Lt. Mark Garcia, who could not confirm whether Timmons was driving.
Fontana police radioed San Bernardino police and waited for them to respond. Once the officers were in position, they attempted to stop the vehicle, but the driver led them on a pursuit, police said.
Timmons headed east on 16th Street when the vehicle ran a red light at the busy Mount Vernon intersection, struck a sedan and rolled.
“Officers were right there on him,” Garcia said.
Police fired an unknown number of rounds at the suspects, striking the unidentified man, Garcia said. He was taken to a hospital.
Timmons, who was uninjured, was taken into custody and questioned at the San Bernardino Police Department.
Authorities were investigating why officers fired at the men and did not know whether the suspects had a gun, Garcia said.
Shotgun shell casings lay in the intersection and holes were visible in the windshield of the mangled white SUV.
A large crowd gathered around the crime scene despite the pouring rain. Nearby residents and customers of local businesses ran outside to check out the commotion. Witnesses reported hearing gunshots.
OK Liquor store owner Sam Park said he saw officers aiming guns at the car before it rolled.
“I heard the noise and came over and saw the police shooting,” Park said. “There were two (black) guys and they kept yelling at them.”
Tim Davis, a 17-year-old Rialto resident, said he heard the screeching of tires, the mashing of metal and lots of yelling.
“I don’t know who said what,” Davis said.
Teams of law enforcement officers also swarmed the crime scene. Members of the Fontana gang unit were there as well as officers from Colton, San Bernardino, the county Probation Department, San Bernardino City Unified School District and sheriff’s deputies.
San Bernardino police Sgt. Bill Hanley called Timmons “public enemy No. 1.”
Police said the spree began early Sunday after Timmons had an argument with his girlfriend, Cheryl Pittman, who asked him not to leave their East Sunrise Avenue house in San Bernardino to drive while intoxicated.
He grabbed a pocket knife and repeatedly stabbed her, authorities said.
She is expected to live, Garcia said.
Pittman couldn’t be reached for comment Friday.
Her cousin, Damaris Madison, 21, of Oakland said Pittman was released from the hospital Wednesday and was doing well.
“It was bad,” Madison said.
Pittman was stabbed in the throat, breast and above her right eye, Madison said.
Madison said Pittman told Timmons “she didn’t want to be with him anymore. He tried to get her to drive off with him, but she didn’t want to because she was afraid something was going to happen.
“He was going, ‘Why are you doing this? I love you.” Then he started stabbing her.”
Pittman and Timmons had dated about a year. The two lived together in the East Sunrise Lane apartment but were not married, Madison said. Authorities previously said the couple was married.
Timmons suffered a childhood of physical abuse at the hands of his father, Madison said.
Within an hour of leaving the apartment, Timmons stopped at a restaurant in the 2000 block of East Highland Avenue in San Bernardino and confronted a woman inside the restaurant, forcing himself into her vehicle, kidnapping her and sexually assaulting her, police said. Police did not release the name of the restaurant.
Timmons let the woman go but kept her vehicle, police said. The car was found Sunday near Second Street and Meridian Avenue in San Bernardino.
On Wednesday, Timmons robbed a worker of her purse and stole her car in the 100 block of Hospitality Lane in San Bernardino, police said. Police would not release the name of the business. That woman was left unharmed.
At 3:44 a.m. Thursday, Timmons and Theodore Jackson, 46, of Rialto robbed the Circle K market in the 900 block of West Bloomington Avenue in Rialto, police said. The clerk was kidnapped and raped, Rialto police Sgt. Vince Licata said.
The surveillance tape showed Timmons tackling the clerk while Jackson went through the register, taking the money and several packs of cigarettes, Licata said.
Timmons then forced her out the door and into the car stolen from Hospitality Lane, police said.
Police said Jackson was dropped off in Rialto while Timmons took the woman to Colton and raped her. The car was abandoned with the woman left in the trunk.
A search of the car turned up Timmons’ California identification card, allowing police to confirm him as a suspect, Licata said.
At 10 a.m. Thursday, Rialto police were sent to a disturbance at a convenience store, where they arrested Jackson. He was charged with robbery, kidnapping and rape.
Timmons has a rap sheet spanning 20 years in San Bernardino and Los Angeles counties, starting in August 1977 with a conviction for robbery in Los Angeles, records show.
His other offenses include car theft, carjacking and assault with a deadly weapon. He was paroled from prison on Sept. 20, after serving seven years for a carjacking in San Bernardino that he was convicted for on Sept. 19, 1997, court and Department of Corrections records show.
“I would say this is a poster child for three-strikes law,” Supervising Deputy District Attorney Vic Stull said Friday, adding that Timmons has racked up multiple life sentences for his suspected crimes. “Every once in a while, you see a case where the phrase ‘throw the books at ‘em’ comes to mind. This is one of them.”
On Thursday, Stull filed nine felony counts against Timmons, including attempted murder, carjacking, forcible rape, sexual battery by restraint, forcible oral copulation and kidnapping to commit another crime.
Stull said Those counts stem solely from crimes on Sunday: the stabbing of Pittman and the rape of the first woman.