A 26-year-old man was arrested after pointing a gun at several people in the parking lot behind a Vista movie theater this week, a sheriff’s sergeant said Friday.
About 11 p.m. Tuesday, someone reported that a man was driving erratically and pointing a gun at people in a back lot at the Vista Village shopping complex on Main Street a few blocks north of state Route 78, Sgt. Michael Hanks said.
Deputies arrived and saw the man still driving around the lot. When they tried to arrest him, he got out of the vehicle and ran, Hanks said.
Deputies found him about a mile away on Eucalyptus Drive in a residential area east of the Vista Library.
A search of the man’s car turned up a loaded ghost gun that had been modified to shoot automatic gunfire, Hanks said. They also found a large-capacity magazine and ammunition.
He was booked into the Vista Detention Facility on suspicion of several charges, including assault with a deadly weapon and possession of a ghost gun.
Hanks said Vista’s Gang Enforcement Team has confiscated 17 ghost guns so far in 2022.
