LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — The man suspected of driving a stolen car that collided with a Las Vegas police cruiser was involved in a similar chase in a stolen car weeks earlier but charges were not immediately filed, the 8 News Now Investigators have learned.
Police arrested Rene Salmeron, 32, on Dec. 19 after he allegedly stole a car and crashed into a Metro police SUV.
Around 7 a.m. that day, an officer was dispatched to a parking lot east of downtown Las Vegas for a report of a stolen car, documents said. The driver of the car then began to elude the officer and sped off.
At one point, the driver, later identified as Salmeron, drove up onto a sidewalk, police said. He later crashed into the Metro vehicle and a second SUV near Eastern Avenue and Charleston Boulevard.
Salmeron declined to answer police officers’ questions about the stolen vehicle and chase, but said, “I’m going back to prison,” documents said.
On Oct. 30 – seven weeks earlier – police arrested Salmeron on charges of DUI and driving a stolen vehicle, documents said. That day, officers responded to a report of a stolen vehicle in the same parking lot as the Dec. 19 call.