Cop Shop

A man suspected of burglarizing a Tempe apartment was arrested on Christmas.

Ronald Anderson, 27, and a second man allegedly removed a television from the apartment, but were discovered in the parking lot when the victim returned home.

Anderson was booked into jail on suspicion of burglary.

The second suspect fled the scene on foot and was not located. He is described as a black male, 5-foot-6 in height with a medium build.

Fire damaged a Mesa day care this afternoon.

No one was in the building at 810 E Southern Ave., as Shining Star Preschool was closed for the Christmas holiday.

At 2:14 p.m., witnesses reported seeing heavy fire and smoke, Mesa Deputy Fire Chief Mike Dunn said. When the first emergency crews arrived, they saw fire erupting from the building’s east side.

The blaze was knocked down within 20 minutes, Dunn said.

A damage estimate was not immediately available and investigators still are looking into the cause.

Mesa police arrested a 36-year-old man on suspicion of armed robbery Friday after someone tried to knock over a Fry’s Supermarket with the corkscrews of two Swiss Army knives.
Police found two of the knives, one with the corkscrew out, on the front seat of a truck belonging to Milan Lipovic.
The truck matched the description of the one the robber left in.
The robber could be seen on surveillance video wearing the same clothes as Lipovic had on when police arrested him.

A toddler is in extremely critical condition after he was pulled from a backyard pool in Ahwatukee Foothills on Sunday afternoon.

The 2-year-old boy was unresponsive and did not have a pulse or a heartbeat when emergency crews arrived at 13427 S. 46th Way, Phoenix fire officials said. The child was transported to Desert Samaritan Hospital.

According to authorities, the boy may have gone through a part of the pool fence that was broken. Family members said he was gone for less than five minutes.

When the boy was discovered, his father did attempt CPR, officials said.

A Mesa salon owner kidnapped from her business last week has been found unharmed.

Reynalda Valdez-Cardenas, 31, was released at an undisclosed location in Phoenix early Sunday, nearly four days after she was taken captive.

Valdez-Cardenas told Mesa investigators she was not harmed or abused by her kidnappers, who remain at large.

Many details of the case, including the identification of the suspects, are still under investigation. 

It was on Thursday morning when two armed men burst into Kendy’s Beauty Salon, 848 S. Alma School Road, forced two employees into the back and handcuffed Valdez-Cardenas before fleeing with her.

The men’s getaway vehicle, an older model Nissan Pathfinder, later was found near the scene.

The first gunman was described as a Hispanic male about 18 to 20 years old, wearing a gray hooded sweat shirt with a black baseball cap. The second was a Hispanic male, also about 18 to 20 years old, wearing jeans and a yellow shirt.

Investigators ask anyone with information about the crime to call police at (480) 644-2211 or Silent Witness at (480) 948-6377.

Two teenage brothers from Chandler were wounded in a weekend shooting in California.

The two and another teen may have been victims of a large gang fight that erupted Saturday in the Central Valley city of Lodi, Lt. Chris Piombo said. The victims’ identities were not released.

A church van was taking the three to a function when the vehicle was forced off the road by two men in a white Dodge. During the ensuing scuffle, a suspect used a silver revolver to fire four shots into the van.

One of the Chandler boys, a 13-year-old, was struck in the chest with the bullet lodging in a lung. He is at UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento, Piombo said.

His 15-year-old sibling was pistol-whipped in the head and suffered a gunshot wound in the shoulder, and a 16-year-old from Lodi was shot in the leg.

No arrests had been made as of Sunday.

Six people were hospitalized Sunday morning as a result of a three-vehicle wreck in west Phoenix.

Two vehicles rolled in the 11:08 a.m. incident a 48^th Avenue and Buckeye Road, said Phoenix Fire Division Chief Mike Sandulak

Among the injured were three children, ages one, three and seven. They were transported to Maricopa Medical Center.

Two adults, a man and woman, were taken to St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center, while another two men were treated at Banner Good Samaritan Medical Center.

Further details were unavailable.

A statewide crackdown on drunken driving netted 178 arrests on Saturday, bringing the Holiday DUI Task Force’s total to more than 2,000 since the Thanksgiving weekend.

According to the Governor’s Office of Highway Safety, officers made 18 arrests for aggravated DUI Saturday.

A drunken-driving offense is considered aggravated when the motorist has two previous DUI offenses in the last seven years, if the motorist has a suspended, canceled or revoked license or when there is a passenger younger than 15 in the vehicle.

More that one-quarter of Saturday’s arrests were classified extreme, with blood-alcohol content levels exceeding 0.15. Of all arrestees, the average BAC was 0.136.

Of the task force’s 2,043 total DUI arrests, 648 have been for extreme DUI.

The task force will operate until Dec. 31.

A woman was carjacked in Mesa Saturday night after she stopped and offered a ride to a man walking along the street.

Police said the man then pulled a gun on the woman and forced her out of the car on University Drive near Dobson Road just before 8 p.m.

The woman was not injured.

More information was not immediately available.

A naked man was arrested Friday evening after smashing his car into the garage of a random Mesa home.
Police found Dennis Szczepanski, 51, pacing back and forth inside the house just before 6 p.m. after neighbors reported the incident.
The house is at 1330 E. Flower Ave. near Stapley Drive and Southern Avenue.
Szczepanski admitted to officers that he didn’t live at the home or know the owners, who were gone at the time.
Police asked Szczepanski why he was naked and how he ended up at the house. He told officers that it was a long story and that he didn’t want to talk about it, Mesa detective Diana Tapia said.
Szczepanski’s car was found parked inside the garage. The garage door had been plowed through and was crumpled on top of the car.
Szczepanski was transported to a local hospital for minor injuries and was later arrested upon release.
He was booked on suspicion of criminal damage, trespassing and indecent exposure.
Police said they would also look for evidence of driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol.