Agencies including the Stanislaus County Sheriff's Department, police and K-9 units hunted in Turlock for two home invasion robbery suspects Wednesday. DEBBIE NODA/THE BEE
David Wayne Morrison is taken into custody by deputy Richard Gonzales
Home invasion arrests
By JOHN COTÉ and DARYL FARNSWORTH
BEE STAFF WRITERS
Published: September 11, 2003, 06:36:43 AM PDT
Authorities arrested 10 people after a violent, pre-dawn robbery Wednesday north of Denair, and said evidence links them to a string of 18 other home invasions in Stanislaus and northern Merced counties.
"The reign of terror that has paralyzed our community is over," Stanislaus County Sheriff Les Weidman said. "These suspects are part of a vicious outlaw group."
Four of them allegedly stormed into a home in the Denair area, east of Turlock, about 3 a.m., attacked the family living there, then took off with several pieces of property and some money. The robbers fled in a sedan that had been parked in an orchard, authorities said.
Undercover deputies assigned to a strike team had been watching the suspects for about four weeks and were in the area, Weidman said.
They swooped in after the dispatch center relayed word of a panic alarm going off at the house at Roeding and Swanson roads. Deputies saw the suspects leaving the area and followed them.
Officers tried to stop the suspects' car near Keyes and Geer roads, Weidman said, but the car sped through the intersection.
The suspects' car continued into south Turlock, stopping a block from Wakefield Elementary School, and they scattered into the neighborhood.
At least two of them, one with a handgun and the other a shotgun, fired several times at deputies, the sheriff said. Officers returned fire with high-powered rifles. No one was wounded.
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