Police Catch One Man After Carjacking, Kidnapping

One man is behind bars, and another remains on the loose, after a kidnapping and carjacking that lead to a high-speed chase from Palm Desert to Cathedral City today.

Tevin Skinner, 19 of Palm Springs, was arrested on suspicion of carjacking and kidnapping.

At 2:45 a.m., police got a report of two suspects on the 500 block of South Saturnino Road holding up a 24-year-old victim at gunpoint, tying him up and forcing him into the trunk of his rental car, said Sgt. Melissa Desmarais.

While the suspects were driving away, the victim pulled an emergency release lever on the trunk’s lid and escaped. A passerby saw this and called the police.

The victim was unhurt, the sergeant said.

While Palm Springs police were tracking down the rental car’s license plate number, unwitting sheriff’s deputies spotted the car’s driver commit a traffic law violation in Palm Desert. The suspects sped away with deputies in pursuit, but the chase ended shortly as the suspects crashed the car into a mailbox on Rancho Vista Drive at Eytel Road, Desmarais said.

The two suspects jumped out of the car and ran into the surrounding residential area. Cathedral City officers joined deputies in the search, which turned up both Skinner, who was hiding nearby, and a handgun, according to Desmarais.

The other suspect is still at large. He is described as a black man in his mid-twenties, 6 feet tall with a medium build last seen wearing dark clothing.

Police asked anybody with information on this incident to call the Palm Springs Police Department at (760) 323-8115.