

After a daylong search for a suspect in a brazen gas station shooting and kidnapping, police swooped in on an East San Jose neighborhood Friday night, firing at the gunman as they tried to snare him in a dragnet that covered an entire block.





It was unclear whether the suspect – who police say came at them threateningly – was injured in the 5:50 p.m. shooting by the officers. But shortly after, the suspect ran inside an apartment complex near King Road and Salamoni Court while as many as 60 officers swarmed the neighborhood, with helicopters hovering overhead and police dogs searching the area. The suspect was still at large at 11:15 p.m. Residents unable to get inside their homes sat in lawn chairs watching the drama unfold.





“They were trying to get inside a house,” Kanwaljeet Sachdev, an engineer at Cisco, said of the officers. “They had bulletproof jackets and M-16 rifles.”





Police consider the suspect armed and dangerous after they say he shot a man at a Willow Glen gas station late Friday morning and kidnapped another person an hour later.





It remained unclear whether the 1997 Lexus that was carjacked at Monterey Road and Curtner Avenue had been found. But Sgt. Jason Dwyer, a San Jose police spokesman said the victim, who was in the car when the suspect drove off with it, was still “unaccounted for.” Police were trying to determine how the suspect ended up in the East San Jose neighborhood.





“They are going to be here all night trying to figure that out,” Dwyer said.





Police did not release the suspect’s identity, but are looking into the possibility that he may have committed other armed robberies. Police released a blurry security-camera still that shows a man in a white T-shirt, long pants and a baseball hat emblazoned with a large, white “T.”





“He is extremely bold and extremely dangerous,” Dwyer said. “He appears to be just a one-man crime wave and we want to get him off the streets.”





The crime spree began late Friday morning when a man who was pumping gas at a Willow Glen gas station was shot by a man who demanded money, an eyewitness reported.





Dwyer confirmed that police arrived shortly before 11 a.m. at the Chevron station at Lincoln and Curtner avenues.





Officers were told that a man in his 30s was pumping gas when he was approached by another man, who pointed a gun and fired at least one shot at the victim. The victim was taken to Valley Medical Center; Dwyer said he was expected to survive.





Police did not disclose a motive, but eyewitness Octavio Alvarez, 21, said it appeared to be a bold armed robbery in the middle of the day.





“I’ll give you my money, just give me a chance,” Alvarez said he heard the victim recounting to police.





Alvarez heard a single shot as he was fixing the lighting on a set of gas pumps. He stepped in to help, he said, placing his gloved hand on the victim’s bleeding abdomen.





Alvarez did not get a good look at the suspect, but said the gunman was parked at the pump that was adjacent to the victim. After the shooting, the suspect fled in what looked like a faded red two-door Nissan. Alvarez said the suspect took a right on Curtner and headed onto Highway 87.





It’s unknown whether the suspect stole any money from the shooting victim.





An hour later, the suspect apparently carjacked a person in the parking lot of The Plant shopping center at Monterey and Curtner, a mile away from the shooting.





Police said they found at the shopping center the Nissan described as the getaway vehicle in the service station shooting.





Mercury News staff writer Lisa Fernandez contributed to this report. Contact Sean Webby at 408-920-5003.