Parolee Surrenders After Crash, Long Standoff

After a three-hour standoff early Wednesday, Tustin police arrested a parolee who crashed his vehicle into several parked cars before fleeing into an apartment complex.

Police were responding to a call about 3:40 a.m. for a traffic accident involving a van that hit several parked cars on Pasadena Avenue near Altadena Avenue. Witnesses told the officers that the driver had fled into an apartment.

When police ran the van’s license plate, they discovered it was owned by Marcelino Almanza, 28, of Riverside, wanted for a parole violation on a murder conviction, police said.

They cordoned off the area and tried to contact Almanza for three hours with phone calls and bullhorn announcements. At 7:30 a.m., they entered the apartment with a police dog and found him hiding in the garage.

Almanza was arrested on a no-bail parole hold and booked into the Santa Ana Jail. Charges in connection to the traffic accident are pending, police said.