Driver arrested after Highway 50 standoff, following chase across Northern California
Authorities took a driver into custody Monday morning after a standoff on Highway 50 in El Dorado County, which followed a high-speed pursuit across several Northern California jurisdictions.
The incident began around 5 a.m. in unincorporated Solano County near Vacaville, where a sheriff’s deputy attempted to make a stop on a vehicle that was speeding and “being driven erratically,” the Solano County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release.
The driver led authorities on an “hour-long chase” through back roads in Solano and Yolo counties, as well as in the cities of Dixon and Davis, sheriff’s officials wrote. California Highway Patrol personnel took over the pursuit as it continued onto eastbound Interstate 80 and Highway 50, into Sacramento County and then El Dorado County.
Solano sheriff’s officials said law enforcement officers attempted to end the pursuit by “blocking the suspect’s vehicle,” a Ford F150 pickup truck, but were unsuccessful.
The pickup stopped near Snows Road in Camino, the CHP’s Placerville office told ABC 10. Caltrans said on its website around 7:30 a.m. that Highway 50 was closed at nearby Carson Road due to police activity.
Crisis negotiators attempted to contact the driver for about three hours, and CHP officers along with an armored El Dorado County sheriff’s SWAT vehicle surrounded the pickup truck, footage from ABC 10 and KCRA 3 showed.
Deputies broke a window on the Ford and apprehended the male suspect with the help of a K9, images from the two TV news stations showed.
CHP and El Dorado County sheriff’s deputies took the suspect, identified by the Solano County Sheriff’s Office as 52-year-old Matthew Ramos of Dixon, into custody, and he was booked Monday afternoon into the Solano County jail in Fairfield.
Booking logs show Ramos faces charges of reckless driving, evading arrest and driving on the wrong side of the road. His bail is set at $33,333.
The chase did not result in any vehicle accidents involving bystanders or any injuries to Solano County deputies, the Sheriff’s Office said, but the suspect vehicle did damage some road signs.
The nearby Camino School was closed for the day, the Mountain Democrat newspaper reported.
Both directions of Highway 50 were back open as of 11:15 a.m., according to Caltrans.
This story was originally published December 6, 2021 at 9:16 AM.
