Paradise Valley cop's car stolen as he
helps at accident scene


By Marty Sauerzopif
TRIBUNE -11/17/2000

Paradise Valley police Sgt. Bruce Barrows was
only trying to help when he began directing
traffic around an accident he encountered 
Thursday morning in West Phoenix.

But he got a major shock when he looked back
toward his own car and saw it was being stolen
by one of the drivers involved in the accident.

"No good deed goes unpunished," Paradise Valley
Lt. Ron Warner said.

The incident began when Barrows was enroute to a
meeting for Valley 911 representatives in Peoria.
On the way, he saw the crash at the interchange 
of Interstate 10 and Loop 101. Barrows blocked 
the lane with his semimarked police car and turned
on the red and blue lights mounted in his car
window. While waiting for Arizona Department of
Public Safety officers to arrive, Barrows began
directing traffic around the crash scene.

Not long after, he realized his car had been swiped,
and the suspect was driving it north on 101, Warner
said. Within minutes, another crash was reported on
the freeway near Camelback Road. Sure enough, it was
the suspect in the Paradise Valley vehicle.

Warner said the suspect - 22-year-old Juan Jesus
Lebario of Peoria - slammed into another car, rolling
it over and forcing it onto the shoulder of the road.
The police car sustained "extensive front-end damage,"
Warner said. The driver of the other car suffered
serious, but not life threatening injuries.

Lebario wormed out of the car and began running through
a nearby cotton field, DPS said. Two witnesses, however,
saw the accident, stopped their car and chased him through
the field. The witnesses - Carlos Maldonado and Dario Lozano,
who work at the Lou Grubb Chrysler dealership on West Bell
Road - caught Lebario and turned him over to DPS.

Warner said he did not have an estimate on damage to the 
vehicle, which was impounded by DPS pending an investigation.

Lebario is facing nine criminal charges, including aggravated 
assault, theft, failure to stop at a collision and endangerment,
DPS officials said.

Back