Police have arrested an 18-year-old boy this weekend, after a group of dirt bikers was seen riding recklessly through San Francisco city streets.
Officers of California Highway Patrol arrested Ronet Sanidad on Sunday, who is a resident of San Francisco, after they spotted a group of 8 to 10 bikers riding wildly throughout the city.
According to the CHP, the bikers were riding through stop signs and red signals, blocking traffic, riding on the sidewalks and without helmets.
The bikers managed to escape, when CHP officers spotted them, but they were tracked by a CHP aircraft equipped with a high resolution camera.
Officers arrested Sanidad after they tracked him to Gould Street and Paul Avenue in the Bayview District, where he tried to hide himself under a parked vehicle after he hid his bike behind a vehicle. Officers impounded his vehicle, after they found that its vehicle identification number was altered.
Police are now investigating whether Sanidad could be connected to other recent incidents on local freeways.
Groups of bikers have become a headache for Bay Area law enforcement. Several reports have been registered about reckless bike riding through city streets and through some housing complexes with long sets of stairs.
The issue took a major turn last month, when a group of 10 to 15 dirt bike riders staged a “sideshow” on the southbound U.S. Highway 101 near the Cesar Chavez Street exit and then attacked a motorist of a passenger vehicle.
A CHP aircraft on March 19th tracked a group of at least 30 ATVs, dirt bikes and motorcycles on the Bay Bridge as they were acting aggressively toward other motorists and riding recklessly.
The riders were tracked and a smaller group was detained near 103rd Avenue and Royal Ann Street in Oakland. A 27-year-old San Leandro resident, Darisha Moran was arrested and four vehicles were impounded at the scene.
Officer Vu Williams, spokesperson for CHP said that investigators are looking, if Sanidad can be linked to previous incidents.
He said that investigating dirt riders can be challenging and dangerous as they move quickly and pursuing them on streets and highways can pose a danger to the public.
However the aircrafts give support to their investigation
“It allows us to really back off, to not have to pursue and put people in danger,” he said. “The aircraft just flies overhead and then we can move in and arrest them when it’s safe.”
Sanidad remains in police custody on suspicion of felony reckless evading, reckless driving, conspiracy to commit a crime and tampering with a vehicle identification number. Police have set a bail of $170,000 on him, according to jail records.
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