LATHROP, Calif. — Months after a string of BB gun shootings left Lathrop residents with hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages to their cars, police arrested a suspect.
Lathrop saw over a dozen cases of BB gun shootings damaging cars and other property in March.
“We knew that this was something that was impacting a lot of people in the community and it was a high priority for us to get a resolution in the case,” said Captain Tracie Shea with the Lathrop Police Department.
John Carlo Sellem, a 34-year-old Lathrop resident, was arrested in connection to the vandalisms. He was arrested on suspicion of felony vandalism charges and has a $425,000 bond.
"Our community came through in a big way. We got a lot of information and our officers were able to generate some leads from that,” said Shea.
Neighbors in the River Islands neighborhood spoke to ABC10 about the vandalisms where they said cars parked on the street were the main targets and repairs could cost more than $1,000.
In March, Lathrop police say there were 17 confirmed cases at the time since September. Now, they say in one year they authored 70 vandalism reports — about 6% of their total crimes.
"We want to reassure the community that this is out of the ordinary for Lathrop. We're tracking all our crime stats on a regular basis. We sit down monthly with our entire supervisory team to go over all that to see if there are any trends, patterns that are emerging and if we need to adjust our approach,” said Shea.
She says the department is keeping an eye on the future and the expected growth of the Lathrop community. They’re hiring at least two more lieutenants and regularly meet with city leaders to make sure there’s enough staff to meet growing demand.
"This critical piece is just the community partnership and the support and the information we receive. That's what allows us to be effective in keeping Lathrop a wonderful and safe place to live," said Shea.
Just in one year in the River Islands area, Lathrop police say they authored more than 1,100 reports: 8% were traffic related, 17% were property crimes like burglaries and thefts.
