Two men with criminal records – one of them with a homicide conviction but out of jail – were arrested early Wednesday, May 10 after they fled from a Sheriff’s deputy and crashed twice.

According to Stanislaus County Sheriff’s Department spokesman Sgt. Luke Schwartz, a deputy was on South Ninth Street at approximately 3:30 p.m. when he saw a car coming from the parking lot of the Arrow Motel with its headlights off and traveling at a high rate of speed. The deputy chased after the car but lost sight of it near Lars Court and called off the pursuit.

Sgt. Schwartz said that the fleeing suspects had first crashed into a fence of a vacant lot before turning into the Lars Court cul-de-sac where they ran into a light pole. Moments later Ceres Police Department dispatchers began receiving calls from residents about a suspicious vehicle and people leaving it.

Officers arrived and set up a perimeter to conduct a yard-to-yard search. Just outside the perimeter Ceres Police officers detained Leodis Lloyd, 30, who was released from state prison on the Post Release Community Supervision program. Lloyd was previously convicted of a weapons charge and initially gave officers a fake name. He was then arrested on a 10-day flash incarceration for violating the terms of his release.

Because a pair of athletic shoes was found in a backyard, officers knew there was a second suspect. A short time later Ceres Police found and arrested a shoeless Fareed Mumin Chatman, 36, of Riverbank who has a record of gun offenses and was on parole for a previous homicide conviction.

“We are thankful that Ceres was able to locate him as soon as the perimeter was broken down,” said Sgt. Schwartz.

Chatman was charged with felony evading a police officer and violating the terms of his parole.

A search of the car turned up no contraband.