Crime & Safety
Marines Arrested in Weekend Window Shooting Spree Along Coast Highway
Glass was shot out of cars and businesses along a stretch of road from Monarch Beach in Dana Point to Newport Beach. No one was injured in the late-night rampage.
Two 20-year-old Camp Pendleton-based Marines have been booked on suspicion of shooting out the windows of nearly two dozen stores and cars along the coast including Gelson's in Monarch Beach this weekend, an Orange County sheriff's spokesman said Tuesday.
Joseph Ikaika Nahale of Fremont and Jesse Jordan Ivie of Gresham, Ore., were both booked on suspicion of felony vandalism and shooting into an occupied vehicle, said Jim Amormino of the Orange County Sheriff's Department.
A 25-year-old woman who works at the Gelson's grocery store in the Monarch Bay Plaza shopping center at 24 Monarch Bay Plaza, in Dana Point was resting in the back seat of her car about midnight Saturday when the rear and passenger side windows were shot out, Amormino said.
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The woman saw a red Ford Explorer speeding away from the scene, he said. The woman was unhurt, but the vandalism was estimated at $1,000, Amormino said. Laguna Beach police were called about 25 window-shattering incidents from Saturday night through early Sunday -- eight storefronts and 17 vehicles were damaged, Laguna Beach police Lt. Jason Kravetz said.
"They got us all over town Saturday night from about 11 p.m. to 12:15 a.m.,'' Kravetz said.
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Laguna Beach police were first alerted to the shootings when they responded to a burglar alarm about 12:15 a.m. Sunday at 790 S. Coast Highway, Kravetz said. Police noticed a business across the street had a shattered window. Laguna Beach police notified sheriff's deputies, who pulled over the two suspects in a Ford Explorer just before 1 a.m. Sunday on Pacific Coast Highway near the Ritz-Carlton at 1 Ritz Carlton Dr., in Dana Point, Kravetz said.
Deputies found two pellet guns in the vehicle, according to Kravetz and Amormino. Three vehicles in San Clemente, two in Dana Point and one in Newport Beach were also damaged Saturday night through early Sunday, Amormino said.
Nahal and Ivie, both active-duty Marines, were booked into the Orange County jail and later released to the custody of the Marines at Camp Pendleton, Amormino said. Police intend to seek charges with the Orange County District Attorney's Office, he said.
--City News Service
