Staff Reports
Mountain View police say a crime spree ended in flames last Thursday, Feb. 16, with a stolen car wrapped around a tree on Ellis Street and a man in custody.
David Silverman, described as a transient, is accused of ramming stolen cars into businesses, then looting the businesses. A recent string of such incidents began Feb. 8 in San Jose, police say, and culminated at MadCo Welding Supply in Mountain View Thursday evening.
There, on the 1900 block of Old Middlefield Lane at about 6:40 p.m., the owner of the closed shop heard a loud crash and found that a vehicle had backed into the store’s front glass doors. The suspect, thinking no one was there, began to enter the business, but when the owner confronted him he drove away, according to Mountain View police spokesman Joseph Kachman.
Mountain View police began searching for the suspect, matching his description to that of a parolee wanted for several robberies. Meanwhile, the vehicle he drove was identified as a Toyota stolen in Fremont.
When police caught up him a car chase ensued, leading officers from Highway 101 to Rengstorff Avenue to Ellis Street. Although the patrol cars’ lights were flashing, the suspect failed to pull over, instead making several lane changes in heavy traffic, Kachman said.
About a minute and a half into the pursuit, the suspect crashed into a tree on southbound Ellis Street, and his car burst into flames, Kachman said. Officers freed the suspect from the burning vehicle. He was not seriously injured.
Silverman was booked into the Valley Medical Center Jail unit in San Jose. He was charged by Mountain View police with two counts of burglary, one count of parole violation, one count of buying or receiving stolen property, one count of driving with an invalid driver license and one count of driving willfully in a reckless manner while evading police.
Police say he is also wanted in San Jose, Fremont and other jurisdictions in connection with numerous other crimes, and will be going back to state prison.
