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Chase ends with fire, manhunt

By Bryan Kirk
The Gazette-Enterprise

Published August 16, 2006

SEGUIN — A dramatic car chase on the streets of Seguin early Tuesday led to the arrest of a 24-year-old Mexican national and a massive air and ground search for another man who fled on foot.

Both men face aggravated robbery charges after they allegedly carjacked a woman outside the IRS office at Interstate 10 and New Braunfels Street in San Antonio at about 6 a.m.

According to San Antonio Police Detective Reggie Freeman, the two men approached the woman as she was getting out of her car to start her work day.

One of the men allegedly pulled out a gun and the other threatened her with a large rock, Freeman said.

One of the men took the woman’s 1992 Cadillac and left her unharmed, Freeman alleged.

The other suspect got into another car and drove away.

Seguin Detective Sgt. Maureen Watson said police have examined the surveillance tape from the carjacking and learned the car both men drove to the area may have been stolen in a carjacking Monday in Austin.

However, Watson said authorities were still trying to verify that claim. The first vehicle has not been recovered.

Meanwhile, the incident might have ended there if the pair had not been spotted driving recklessly by a Seguin motorist and an undercover Seguin police officer.

Cpl. Mike McCann said the motorist called in the license plate, which came back to a stolen car.

“We knew there were two men in the car who were considered armed and dangerous,” McCann said. “One of our officers was close to the area and got in behind it.”

Detective David Aguilar spotted the Cadillac at I-10 and Austin Street traveling south and called for marked police units to back him up.

Marked units caught up with them in the area of Continental, where State Highway 123 and and Business 123 connect.

Navarro Athletic Director Lin Havron was heading to his first day at the new Navarro High School at about 8:30 a.m.

He’d just dropped his daughter off at daycare at Cordova and Timmermann when he looked in his rearview mirror and saw the white Cadillac and an SUV coming up behind him.

“I thought they were racing,” Havron said. “They were closing on me pretty fast.”

Havron moved into the southbound lanes of 123.

“The Cadillac lost control on 123 and took out a couple of signs,” Havron said. “He slid sideways, overcorrected and got back on the road.”

The car was losing parts and scattering debris on the roadway, Havron said.

Police and sheriff’s deputies pursued the Cadillac east on FM 20 to FM 3353, where the car burst into flames and ran off into a field.

The driver and his passenger jumped from the burning car and ran in two different directions.

The passenger, who authorities identified as 24-year-old Dante Arrellano — an illegal alien living in Austin — was quickly apprehended by police.

He has been charged with aggravated robbery and several counts of felony evading arrest.

Police questioned Arrellano, but Watson said he would not cooperate with authorities.

He was taken to the Guadalupe County Jail late Tuesday, where he was officially charged.

His bond has not been set.

Meanwhile, the driver, who still has not been identified, was the subject of a massive manhunt in the area of FM 3353 and FM 20.

Police used K-9 units from the sheriff’s office, as well as the the San Antonio and Seguin police departments.

“We are using a lot manpower from these departments,” said Sheriff’s investigator Lt. Kevin Jordan.

The Department of Public Safety searched the surrounding area by air for several hours while police and sheriff’s deputies and members of the Texas Rangers conducted the ground search.

Because a gun was not found in the burned-out car, authorities became concerned the fugitive could still be armed and initiated the emergency call out system.

“We did an emergency notification for a 2-mile radius,” Jordan said.

The area of concern by law enforcement encompassed NISD, which caused administrators to be more cautious for their students.

Superintendent Dee Carter, however, said while the students were not on any sort of “lockdown,” administrators were advised to be more watchful of the students and their individual campuses and that students were never in any danger.

Authorities were expected to remain in the area overnight or until the fugitive was caught.