Ventura County – As if traffic on today’s highways and byways wasn’t frustrating enough, when one is the victim of a hit-and-run driver’s errant ways the temptation to chase someone down and pull them over to the side of the road on one’s own is something anyone might experience.
But being tempted to take action and answering that clarion call to take the law into one’s hands are two different things. Just after 7:00 a.m. on April 1st, that distinction became blurred when 36-year-old Caden Everett of Ventura found himself the subject of a hot vehicle pursuit with an enraged victim of a collision he caused.
According to the Ventura Police Department’s Watch Commander report, it all began when 911 Emergency dispatch reported “a black pickup that allegedly struck a fence and a pole” on a residential street and summarily “fled the scene.”
Before officers could respond to the scene of that accident, “a second hit-and-run was reported” involving a vehicle “similar in description to the black pickup” that collided with a car being driven by another Ventura resident. While officers were responding to the scene of the second incident, “the victim in the second incident pursued the suspect” and succeeded in “pulling his vehicle in front of the suspect vehicle” on a busy commercial thoroughfare. At that point, however, the suspect “managed to push the victim’s vehicle out of his way and drove off again.”
Undaunted and undoubtedly seeing red at this point, the victim and another vehicle being driven by a witness “pursued the suspect in their vehicles” and eventually corralled him and brought him to a halt. At that point, officers caught up with the three vehicles and made contact with Everett, who immediately “became uncooperative and fought with an officer.”
Everett was taken into custody and transported to Ventura County Medical Center for treatment of an injury incurred during the course of his arrest. Once medically cleared, he was transported to Ventura County Jail, where he was booked on charges of felony assault with a deadly weapon, hit-and-run, and driving under the influence of a controlled substance.
