SAN LEANDRO — A theft suspect on parole for robbery who was trying to elude Alameda County sheriff’s deputies suffered a broken leg and other injuries Thursday morning when the car he was driving crashed into a building here, authorities said.
The Oakland man was extricated from the vehicle and was taken to a hospital where he was being treated before he was to be booked at Santa Rita Jail.
Sheriff’s Sgt. Ray Kelly said the man was suspected of stealing alcohol worth $1,200 and other items from a Castro Valley Safeway store at about 9:15 a.m. Thursday before fleeing in a Toyota Camry.
Deputies spotted the vehicle a few minutes later going westbound on Interstate 580. They did not start pursuing it then and followed it off the freeway at Estudillo Avenue where it struck another vehicle and kept going, Kelly said. There were no injuries to the occupant of that vehicle.
Deputies then pursued the Toyota for about a half-mile on city streets before it eventually went out of control and crashed into a building in the 700 block of MacArthur Boulevard, Kelly said.
Most of the car penetrated the building. There was no one inside the building which belongs to a church, a person in the area said.
Alameda County firefighters had to extricate the man from the wreckage. Besides the broken leg he also suffered cuts, authorities said.
Kelly said besides the alcohol and other items taken from the Safeway, deputies recovered additional items believed stolen from other stores from the car.
The man was arrested on suspicion of theft, hit-and-run, felony evading, possession of drug paraphernalia and violating parole. Details about his robbery conviction were not immediately available.
Staff writer George Kelly contributed to this report.
