Ex-linebacker pastor who tackled CHP attacker: ‘No one is dying today’

Linebacker Pastor Joel Jones and his wife of 43 years, AnnaLisa Jones, intervened when they witnessed a CHP officer being attacked. Linebacker Pastor Joel Jones and his wife of 43 years, AnnaLisa Jones, intervened when they witnessed a CHP officer being attacked. Photo: Amy Van Artsdalen / Courtesy AnnaLisa Jones Photo: Amy Van Artsdalen / Courtesy AnnaLisa Jones Image 1 of / 4 Caption Close Ex-linebacker pastor who tackled CHP attacker: ‘No one is dying today’ 1 / 4 Back to Gallery

Joel Jones doesn’t believe there are coincidences in life.

So when the 61-year-old East Bay pastor and his wife followed an erratic freeway driver who went on to viciously attack a California Highway Patrol officer near American Canyon over the weekend, he knew he was there for a reason.

Jumping in and subduing the suspect on the shoulder of Interstate 80, Jones said, was God’s plan for him. Fortunately for him — and less so for the attacker — he was uniquely prepared for the task as a former college linebacker and retired cop.

“She could have been toast,” Jones said of the CHP officer. “And she could have shot him, but the Lord mixed it up and said, ‘No one is dying today.’”

His heroics Saturday morning not only saved the officer, but also may have spared others from a motorist engaged in an alleged crime spree. The driver, 49-year-old Gary Coslovich of San Jose, was suspected of plowing a truck into a Santa Clara County building last month because he was angry with the county’s sanctuary policies for immigrants.

“If the passerby hadn’t stopped, the situation could have been a lot worse for the officer,” said Officer Dawn Dwyer, a spokeswoman for the CHP’s Solano office. “They were amazing. It’s nice to know that people are still willing to do that.”

The injured officer, who was not named, has since been released from the hospital after being treated for moderate injuries, including cuts and bruises, officials said.

Coslovich, who was fired last month from his job as a painter for Santa Clara County, was booked into Solano County Jail on suspicion of several felonies including attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon and battery on a police officer.

The incident began around 8:30 a.m. on Saturday. Jones and his wife of 43 years were driving west on Interstate 80 when they noticed a white Ford F-250 barreling down the freeway at over 80 mph and tailgating other drivers.

“One lady tried to get out of the way, but he rammed the rear of her car,” Jones said Monday. “She bounced off the rail and careened into traffic. Miraculously no one was hurt, but to my surprise, the truck just kept going.”

Jones, a retired San Francisco sheriff’s deputy, decided to follow the pickup driver while his wife called 911.

“I thought, ‘This is crazy. He’s got to be stopped or he’s going to kill someone,’” Jones said.

As their vehicles neared American Canyon Road northeast of Vallejo, Jones watched the truck hit another driver. Soon, the pickup began to smoke and lose speed, the apparent toll of the collisions.

Jones drove up next to the vehicle to get a better look at the man behind the wheel.

“I could see the silhouette of the driver calmly smoking a cigarette like he was on a Sunday stroll,” he said. “I thought, ‘This guy must be out of his mind.’”

Moments later, a responding CHP officer pulled the driver over. And Jones pulled over, too, lagging about 15 yards behind the officer to see how the situation played out.

“I said to my wife, ‘We should just wait because there’s going to be a conflict here,’” he said. “This officer needed to have some kind of backup.”

Sure enough, he said, the driver got out and rushed the officer.

“He punched her in the face three times and then started stomping her,” Jones said. “At that point she was on her back. You could hear her screaming and her muffled cries.”

Jones said the suspect, who was ranting incoherently, then appeared to reach down toward the officer’s waist, where her gun remained holstered.

Jones, a onetime linebacker at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, didn’t hesitate. “Lord be with me,” he said to himself before launching his body at the attacker and knocking him to the ground.

While holding the man’s face against the pavement, Jones said he wrenched one of his arms behind his back in a submission hold while other passersby ran over to help.

Jones’ wife, AnnaLisa, got out of the car to check on the officer.

“My focus was on her, letting her know it’s going to be all right,” she said. “I started praying for her.”

By then, several CHP units had responded to the scene and secured the suspect, later identified as Coslovich.

Public records show Santa Clara County officials filed for a restraining order last month against Coslovich stemming from the May 1 crash on county property.

Officials said he intentionally plowed his truck into the building on Berger Drive, doing $20,000 in damage, because he disagreed with the county’s fight against President Trump’s effort to punish sanctuary cities, said Lead Deputy County Counsel Michael Rossi.

After the wreck, Coslovich, a hunter, headed to Roseville (Placer County) to stay with his girlfriend while officials in the South Bay issued an arrest warrant. Soon, Rossi said, Roseville police picked him up for alleged drunken driving and brought him back to Santa Clara County, where he “threatened to kill the Santa Clara Board of Supervisors.”

Deputies placed him on a 72-hour involuntary psychiatric hold and confiscated his weapons and ammunition.

Jones — who had no idea who he was tangling with — grew up as one of 13 kids in a tough neighborhood on the south side of Chicago. He met AnnaLisa at age 14, and the couple has been together ever since. In the last two decades, they had “a major epiphany” and devoted their lives to their faith.

They describe themselves as “soldiers of God” and head a small non-denominational church in Crockett called Spirit of Truth Church Worldwide, where they co-host weekly radio sermons.

“We were just doing our job,” AnnaLisa said. “God put the right person in the right place to do the right job.”

Evan Sernoffsky is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: esernoffsky@sfchronicle.com Twitter; @EvanSernoffsky