Tires slashed on more than two dozen cars in Santa Rosa Junior College area, police say

More than two dozen people in Santa Rosa’s Junior College neighborhood and the northern edge of downtown found their cars leaning on punctured tires Wednesday night and Thursday morning following a mass tire-slashing.

As of Thursday afternoon, officers received 25 reports of slashed tires in those areas. Eight were on Humboldt Street, seven on Terrace Way and three on Lomitas Avenue, the Santa Rosa Police Department said.

Officers additionally learned of two cars with their tires slashed in the 300 block of College Avenue and three at Seventh and Riley streets, Sgt. Jeneane Kucker said. She could not immediately provide locations for two additional reports, which came in to the department through an online reporting system, though they are believed to be in the same vicinity, Kucker said.

Each vehicle was either parked on the street or in a nearby carport or parking lot, said Sgt. Dave Linscomb and witnesses. The cars had anywhere between one to three tires punctured, he added.

Police believe the crimes were carried out sometime after nightfall. One car parked on Lomitas Avenue, for example, was likely struck within an hourlong window starting at 8:30 p.m., Linscomb said. No one had been arrested in connection to the slashings as of Thursday afternoon.

“It’s unfortunate that people do this,” said Brian Sosnowchik, a Humboldt Street resident whose wife’s Subaru SUV had two punctured tires. Their lease on the car will be up in a few months, but the couple may be on the hook for the cost of replacing the tires, something that could cost hundreds of dollars, he said.

Sosnowchik and other neighbors were looking through home surveillance video to see if they may have caught a suspect or suspects on video, he said. ?“Hopefully someone can come forward with tangible evidence,” Sosnowchik said.

Michelle Inskeep, co-owner of Yarbrough Bros. Towing, said the business received about a dozen calls regarding slashed tires in the Santa Rosa Junior College neighborhood on Thursday morning, an unusually high amount.

“This is bigger than what I can ever remember in terms of tires being slashed,” said Inskeep, who’s worked at the towing company for more than three decades. “Usually it’s one or two different cars, not this many.”

In 2011, Vincent McCarthy, a 23-year-old Santa Rosa man, pleaded guilty to three counts of felony vandalism after he was arrested on suspicion of slashing the tires of at least 62 cars in the Santa Rosa Junior College neighborhood. Among the vehicles targeted were cars that belonged to his father, an ex-girlfriend and her mother, police said.

Officers urge victims, or anyone who may have additional information about the Wednesday night tire-slashing spree, to contact the police department.

You can reach Staff Writer Nashelly Chavez at 707-521-5203 or nashelly.chavez@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @nashellytweets.