Novato police arrested four people Friday night suspected of causing an accident after trying to evade a DUI-driver's license checkpoint on Rowland Boulevard, police said Saturday.
At about 7:45 p.m. Friday, a Novato motorcycle officer tried to pull over a vehicle attempting to evade the checkpoint on Rowland Boulevard between Redwood Boulevard and Novato Boulevard. The vehicle sped away on Redwood Boulevard at high speed; officers opted not to pursue in the name of safety.
But the suspects' vehicle collided with another at the intersection of Redwood Boulevard and DeLong Avenue. A Novato police officer witnessed the accident, and saw four men flee. One of them, 21-year-old Dixon Hernandez-Gonza of San Rafael, was arrested nearby without incident.
Police got a phone call from a citizen, responding to a police Nixle alert, that three men matching suspect descriptions were walking along Novato Boulevard. Police soon found them; one, 19-year-old Jefferson Lopez of Corte Madera, tried to run away, and also tossed a loaded handgun away.
Lopez, along with Carlos Gonzalez, 18, of Mill Valley and 18-year-old Luis Garcia-Lopez of San Rafael, were then arrested on suspicion of gang participation and resisting/obstructing arrest. All three were in the Marin County Jail Saturday night in lieu of $50,000 bond.
Hernandez-Gonza, whom Novato police said was also wanted by San Rafael police for threatening a person with a handgun, had also been booked into the Marin County Jail, but was no longer there as of Saturday night.
In addition to the citizen with the tip, the Marin County Sheriff's Office, the Marin Count Major Crimes Task Force and their firearm detection K-9, and the California Highway Patrol all helped with this case, Novato police said.
