Photo: Crow Canyon Commons
SAN RAMON — A couple from Oakland was hanging out in the parking lot at the Crow Canyon Commons Shopping Center before they were arrested. A witness noticed them casing parked cars on June 18 and notified the police.
The witness reported seeing a man peering inside parked cars. Not only that, the man was checking door handles as if trying to find an unlocked car.
After checking several vehicles, the same man walked to a waiting car parked nearby. He entered on the passenger side, and the woman driver started driving away.
That’s when the San Ramon police arrived to investigate what they were doing there. Officers attempted to make a traffic stop, but the driver refused to comply.
Instead, the suspects led officers on a brief chase towards Interstate 680. Along the way driver crashed into a vehicle but kept going. At one point, she was driving the wrong way against traffic.
Mindful of public safety, officers stopped chasing the car as it entered onto the freeway. Soon afterward, they found it abandoned on the side of the freeway, but both suspects were nowhere in sight.
With assistance from Dublin police and Contra Costa County Sheriff’s Office deputies, San Ramon officers set up a perimeter.
First, they located and arrested the man, 26-year-old Niko Correa. The woman, Meaghan Stevens, 23, was able to evade authorities for a little while longer.
Correa and Stevens were subsequently booked into the Martinez Detention Facility. They both remain in custody with bail for release denied.
Turns out Correa was already on parole for a DUI incident in 2016, involving alcohol and drugs. His latest charges include illegal possession of ammunition, resisting an officer, and battery against an officer.
Stevens faces charges for hit and run driving, evading a police officer, and driving the wrong way. She was also arrested for an outstanding warrant for failing to appear.
