Armed robbery suspect flees into BottleRock Napa Valley, prompting lockdown

A 27-year-old San Francisco man was arrested Saturday after running inside the BottleRock Napa Valley music festival in a foiled attempt to evade law enforcement after a reported armed robbery, according to the Napa Police Department.

The incident, which prompted a temporary lockdown of the festival’s entrance gates, began shortly after 4 p.m., when Napa Central Dispatch received a 911 call about an armed robbery on Hagen Road, near the Silverado Trail, according to a statement from Napa police. The victims, whose identities were not disclosed, met the suspects for a private party jewelery sale, according to police, who did not provide additional details about the encounter.

The victims, who were not injured, told dispatchers the suspects fled in a Hyundai. A Napa County sheriff’s deputy spotted the vehicle near Hagen Road and First Avenue, police said. The deputy pursued the suspects toward Napa Valley Expo, the Third Street venue where the three-day music festival is held.

Near the festival, the suspects stopped and fled on foot. One suspect, later identified as William Carter of San Francisco, was taken into custody immediately after entering the fairgrounds through the gate at Third Street, police said. He was arrested on suspicion of nine crimes, including armed robbery, evading law enforcement, conspiracy to commit a crime and assault with a deadly weapon with force likely to cause great bodily injury, police said.

A second suspect, who police described as a light-skinned Latino man in his late 20s or early 30s with dark curly hair, was last seen in the area of Silverado Trail at Third Street. He was wearing a black T-shirt and jeans, according to police.

The festival’s entrance gates were locked down for about an hour, and attendees took to Twitter to report long lines outside the gates during the period of the closure. The gates were reopened after 5 p.m., according to a post on the Police Department’s Facebook page.

Tom Fuller, a spokesman for BottleRock, referred to the statement from the Napa Police Department. He was unable to provide any additional information.

Anyone with information about the incident was asked to contact Detective Dodd at ddodd@cityofnapa.org.

You can reach Staff Writer Hannah Beausang at 707-521-5214 or hannah.beausang@pressdemocrat.com.