More than 100 San Jose police searched Saturday for a San Jose man whom they described as the key suspect in a violent carjacking and robbery rampage that left a woman prominent in the Vietnamese-American community dead, another man hospitalized and city leaders stunned after police hit the suspect’s vehicle with gunfire but he still escaped.

Investigators confirmed that Cindy Nguyen, 60, of Campbell, was killed in connection with the incidents, after her Lexus sedan was carjacked Friday afternoon and her body was found early Saturday morning.

“Yesterday, San Jose experienced a crime wave we have not seen in a single day in a very long time,” San Jose police Chief Chris Moore said Saturday afternoon.

San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed announced the city is offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction in the case.

Police identified Paul Ray Castillo, 33, of San Jose, as the suspect.

“We’re looking to take Mr. Castillo into custody before anybody else gets hurt,” Moore said. “We believe he is armed and very dangerous.”

Nguyen’s body was found about 8 a.m. Saturday in a home in the 500 block of North 12th Street. A person at the residence called to report finding the body in a garage area also used as storage and living space, said police spokesman Jose Garcia. Police said Castillo knows people who live at the house.

At a packed afternoon news conference, police declined to reveal how Nguyen died. Authorities on Saturday night said they did not know where Castillo might have gone but were checking on recent reports of stolen vehicles.

Police said Castillo last was seen wearing a white and/or red shirt and dark-colored pants, and is described as 5 feet 9 and 210 pounds, with short, black hair, brown eyes and a thin mustache. Officers urged anyone who sees him to call 911.

‘A big sister to all of us’

The case hit hard in San Jose’s Vietnamese-American community.

Nguyen worked as an office manager at PN Real Estate Group in San Jose. She also hosted a radio show on Vietnamese station KAZA 1290 AM in San Jose.

“We all loved her. We are going to miss her,” said Nick Pham, broker-owner of PN Real Estate. “She was a wonderful person, a big sister to all of us. If you ask everybody she knows, everyone is going to tell you the same thing: She would drop everything to help you out. She always had a big smile on her face.”

Councilwoman Madison Nguyen, the city’s only Vietnamese elected official and the representative of the district where Cindy Nguyen vanished, said the crime has resonated widely.

“I’ve been getting so many phone calls,” said Madison Nguyen, who is not related to the victim. “It’s really shaken up the Vietnamese community tremendously. She’s a very well-known figure in the community. She sold a lot of homes to a lot of families in the community. This really signifies a huge loss.”

Starting point

The crime spree began late Friday morning.

The first victim, a 42-year-old San Jose man, was recovering Saturday at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center from a gunshot wound he suffered during a gas station robbery that happened while he was pumping gas in Willow Glen shortly before 11 a.m. Police said Castillo pulled up to the Chevron gas station at Lincoln and Curtner avenues in a brown Nissan 300Z that had been reported stolen nine days earlier.

The robber demanded money from the man and shot him in the abdomen, then sped off. Police have not released the injured man’s name, although they said his injuries are not life-threatening.

An hour later, Nguyen, who was driving a white 1997 Lexus ES 300, was carjacked about a mile away at the The Plant shopping center parking lot, at Curtner Avenue and Monterey Road. Witnesses told investigators they heard a gunshot, said San Jose police Assistant Chief Rikki Goede. The Nissan described as the getaway vehicle in the service station shooting was found at the shopping center where Nguyen was carjacked. Nguyen earlier had called the real estate office, where she had worked for the past two years, to report car trouble.

“It was just the wrong place the wrong time. She had car failure,” Pham said. “And that’s the last we heard of her. We were going to give her a jump. But she told us, don’t worry, there’s a nice person who is going to do it for me.”

By 4 p.m., Nguyen’s family reported her missing.

At 6:11 p.m., police on foot saw a Lexus matching the stolen vehicle’s description at King and Berryessa roads. When they approached, the driver accelerated toward them and one of the officers fired several shots, hitting the vehicle. Goede said the driver did not return fire, and authorities do not know if he was hit. He escaped on foot, as a helicopter, special operations units and dozens of other police descended on the area.

Run-ins with the law

Police believe Castillo — a parolee with a rap sheet that includes domestic violence and drugs — slipped through an all-night dragnet Friday and early Saturday at an apartment complex at Salamoni Court and King Road. They warned that acquaintances or family members harboring him would be prosecuted.

“It is extremely serious. It is a felony,” Goede said.

Friends and colleagues of Nguyen had scrambled Saturday morning to distribute missing-person fliers in the hope of bringing her home safely. They said she was a divorced mother of three children, two adult daughters and a son.

Councilman Pierluigi Oliverio, whose district includes the gas station where the crime spree began, said he was relieved to hear the gas station victim is expected to survive but was saddened about Nguyen.

“I’m troubled when any act of violence happens in the city,” Oliverio said. “We need to neutralize any imminent threat and he is a clearly a threat.”

Asked if Castillo was facing a third strike that could land him in prison for life, police said Saturday afternoon they didn’t know.

“We have no idea what has driven him to do what he is doing,” Goede said.

33rd homicide

In the past decade, San Jose’s homicide total has ranged from 20 to 33, an exceptionally low rate for a city of 1 million people. But Nguyen’s death is the 33rd homicide of the year, with more than three months left.

“We do not normally experience this type of crime in San Jose,” said Moore, who returned early from a trip to Washington, D.C., to oversee the case. “When we do, we go all out.”

Anyone with information on the whereabouts of the suspect is urged to contact the San Jose Police robbery unit at 408-277-4166.

Contact John Woolfolk at 408-975-9346.