The surviving suspect from a Stockton bank robbery, car chase and shootout that left a hostage and two suspects dead is a 19-year-old gang associate, police said Thursday.

Jaime Ramos of Stockton was booked into San Joaquin County Jail on suspicion of homicide, kidnapping, robbery and attempted murder. Police said he was one of three documented Norteños gang members who took part in an hour-long chase and shootout with dozens of officers Wednesday.

The men shot at least one of three hostages they seized at a Bank of the West branch, may have pushed hostages from their getaway car, and indiscriminately sprayed gunfire that struck homes, other cars and pursuing police vehicles, authorities said.

"In my 18 years here, I've never seen this level of violence," said Officer Joe Silva, a spokesman for the Stockton Police Department. "There was just a complete disregard for human life."

The wild shootout started around 2 p.m. Wednesday when three armed men walked into a Bank of the West on the 7800 block of Thornton Road. Police said a security officer managed to call police before the assailants tied him up.

Officers swarmed to the bank as the gunmen took three women hostage, two of them bank employees and the third a customer, said Stockton police Chief Eric Jones. The suspects shielded themselves from police with the hostages as they left the bank and forced them into one employee's Ford Explorer. The men then drove away with police in pursuit.

After driving a couple of blocks, the assailants shot one of the bank employees, police said. She then either jumped or was pushed out of the vehicle.

One of the pursuing officers stopped to help the woman, whom police did not name. She is expected to survive, Jones said.

Dozens of law enforcement officers joined in the chase as the SUV sped through Stockton, Lodi and Acampo, barreling along Interstate 5, Highway 99 and several neighborhood streets before heading back to Stockton. The gunmen fired at police with a "high-powered assault rifle" with a seemingly limitless amount of ammunition from magazines strapped to their bodies, Jones said.

Bullets hit homes, other cars and at least 14 law-enforcement vehicles, police said. The gunmen briefly lost pursuing officers at 2:48 p.m. and stopped on the Morada Lane off-ramp of Highway 99, apparently to wait for police.

An off-duty police officer spotted the vehicle with one gunman "leaning over the back trunk ready to fire upon officers," Jones said. The officer opened fire, prompting the suspects to take off again.

Police said the officer "likely thwarted a deadly ambush."

About an hour into the chase, the second bank-employee hostage was thrown or jumped from the vehicle that was traveling around 50 mph, police said. She was not identified and was expected to survive.

Minutes later, the SUV was finally disabled after its tires were shot out by officers near Thornton Road and Otto Drive in north Stockton. The gunmen again opened fire on police, who poured return fire into the SUV. Police said Ramos used the bank customer, who had been taken hostage, as a human shield. She and two suspects were killed. Ramos was not injured in the hail of gunfire.

Police said the two dead suspects were both Stockton gang members, ages 30 and 27. Officers did not release their names but said the 30-year-old suspect was the driver and the 27-year-old was firing an "AK-47-style" assault rifle from the passenger's seat.

Police did not release the name of the slain hostage, but family members told several media outlets that she was Misty Holt-Singh, who was married with children. Dozens of friends and family were paying tribute to Holt-Singh on her Facebook page Thursday.