LITTLE ROCK, (KTHV) - Over the last three weeks, Pulaski County deputies were called to two separate shootings that put two separate men in the hospital and after leading them on a county wide police chase, authorities say they have the man responsible.
"Pretty brazen crime spree and a pretty dangerous one. We're actually pretty lucky that nobody got killed during this," says Lt. Carl Minden with the Pulaski County Sheriff's Department.
On October 3rd, Little Rock Police got a call to the intersection of 9th and I-30 to an individual that had been carjacked. A short time later, another call came in from Neely road in Sweet Home.
"An individual was out working in his yard. Subject pulled up and fired at him with a shot gun, struck and injured him," says Lt. Minden.
Witnesses described a Hispanic male with a shot gun in both instances.
"We looked at it as trying to put the two together but at that point, didn't have a lot of suspect information to go with," says Lt. Minden.
Then, last Thursday, another carjacking on Antler Way in Sherwood and a few moments later gunshots rang out just a few streets over on Batesville Pike.
"We had another incident where we had another individual that was shot with a shotgun," says Lt. Minden. "Deputies responding got in a pursuit with this individual and were able to, after a pretty lengthy pursuit, take him into custody."
The chase took deputies all the way through the south end of Pulaski County and onto Highway 70 where a pit maneuver by state police put the suspect through two fences and into the car lot of KB Auto Sales. After a short stay in the hospital, authorities took 22-year-old Gabriel Jaquez into custody.
"He ended up confessing to all of these incidents and another incident in Conway where an individual was carjacked and he confessed to that as well," says Lt. Minden
Leaving Jaquez with a list of charges almost as long as his 15 day crime spree including 2 counts of first degree battery, 6 counts of aggravated assault, 2 counts of theft of property, 1 count of aggravated robbery, 3 counts of criminal use of prohibited weapon, and 2 counts of possession of firearms by certain persons.
"I think there may be more (charges) to come, who knows," says Lt. Minden. "He needed to be in custody to protect other people."
As for a motive for all these crimes, Lt. Minden says they do know Jaquez knew the shooting victim on Batesville Pike but as for the victim on Neely Road, they are still not sure what their relationship was. He also says they don't believe Jaquez knew any of his car jacking victims
Jaquez is being held on a $400,000 bond in the Pulaski County Detention Center. Deputies say if he is sentenced to the maximum penalty on all these charges, he could spend more than a hundred years in jail.