SAN JOSE — Federal authorities have announced the arrest of an alleged accomplice to a carjacking and robbery suspect who shot and wounded a San Jose police sergeant before he was killed last week during a violent downtown clash that ended a multi-county chase that included two earlier police gunfights.
Edward Isaiah Macias was taken into custody in Los Banos in the early morning hours of Jan. 22, according to the U.S. Marshals Service, which publicly disclosed the arrest Tuesday.
The existence of a reputed accomplice to suspect Mohamed Husien, a 30-year-old Davis resident, was not mentioned at an afternoon news conference held by the San Jose Police Department — held more than 10 hours after Macias’ arrest — detailing the injury of its sergeant and officers subsequently shooting, then running over, Husien to end his reported rampage.
With no public acknowledgment by authorities, Macias was charged Friday and arraigned Monday on allegations he participated in an attempted carjacking and robberies that preceded the Jan. 21 police chase that ended with Husien’s death, court records show. He is being held without bail in the Elmwood men’s jail in Milpitas.
According to the marshals service, SJPD detectives “immediately identified Macias as Husien’s accomplice who dropped him off at the San Jose car dealership. Sacramento police had identified Macias and Husien as the two suspects who attempted to carjack another dealership at gunpoint three days earlier.”
That generally lines up with the public account of the crime spree linked to Husien, a felon who police say stole a red Chevrolet Corvette in Sacramento on Jan. 17.
According to San Jose police, after the Corvette theft in Sacramento, Husien committed robberies at a minimart and a San Jose liquor store. The following day, he was suspected of additional robberies on the Peninsula and again in San Jose. Macias is also accused of being involved in those crimes.
Husien was spotted in the stolen Corvette in San Jose on Jan. 21, but police lost track of him and later found the car abandoned. Around 2 p.m. that day, authorities said Husien stole a green Corvette at gunpoint from a car lot on Capitol Expressway and was followed by a police helicopter as he drove to Hollister.
After the shootouts with police and deputies in that city, he commandeered another car at gunpoint and drove back to San Jose — reportedly firing at California Highway Patrol officers along the way — before crashing into another vehicle near Notre Dame Avenue and West Julian Street.
As San Jose police and other law enforcement agencies converged on the site, authorities say Husien rushed a police sergeant who had just arrived and opened fire, touching off a close-range gunfight in which the sergeant was grazed in the head by a bullet. Husien briefly got into the sergeant’s police SUV before running off as dozens of gunshots were fired.
Bystander video shows Husien falling to the ground, and moments later being driven over by a police SUV, which was followed by another volley of police gunfire. Husien was pronounced dead at the scene; the wounded sergeant underwent surgery for a skull fracture and was released the next day.
The marshals service said that on the night of the shooting, its Pacific Southwest Regional Fugitive Task Force was “requested to find and arrest Macias,” and they tracked him to a home in Los Banos. Deputy marshals monitored the home while awaiting a search warrant, and around 4 a.m. Jan. 22, they took Macias into custody, the agency said.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
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