Corona Man Arrested Following Pursuit

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CORONA – A high-speed pursuit ended in the arrest of a 34-year-old Corona man on Friday night.

On Friday night while Corona Police were on patrol for juvenile curfew violators they noticed a silver Lexus speeding through a residential area where a large party was going on in the 1800 block of Duncan Way. Officers immediately signaled for the driver to pull over, but he accelerated at speeds up to 70 miles per hour. The suspect, later identified as Rodney Varela Jr. ran a stop sign and eventually came to a stop in the 4100 block of Eagle Glen Parkway.

When the officers approached the vehicle they made contact with Varela and four juveniles inside the vehicle. All of the occupants were removed from the vehicle and were detained for further investigation. Varela was arrested for evading arrest and contributing to the delinquency of minors. He was booked into jail and the minors were cited for curfew violations and released to their parents.

On Saturday morning at around 9:30 a.m. a citizen located a loaded Beretta handgun in the grass on Eagle Glen Parkway, south of Bedford Canyon and reported the finding to the Corona Police Department. The pursuit had traveled through the same area. The gun was found to be stolen from another state.

On Saturday evening, an off-duty Corona Police officer who was aware of the incident noticed three boys searching the area where the handgun was recovered. The officer responded to contact the juveniles and as a result of the follow-up investigation, Varela was also charged with being a felon in possession of a firearm, possession of a stolen firearm, and felony child endangerment. The on-duty magistrate set Varela’s bail at $500,000. He was later housed at the Robert Presley Detention Center in downtown Riverside.