Turlock Area News

On Friday, May 12th, 2023, at 10:24 pm, a Turlock Police officer near the intersection of W Christoffersen Pkwy and McKenna Dr, Turlock, observed a vehicle being driven without any license plates attached to it, so he attempted to make a traffic stop on it.

The vehicle immediately accelerated from the officer westbound on W Christoffersen Pkwy and a pursuit was initiated.

The vehicle went northbound on N Walnut Rd, westbound on W Taylor Rd, and got onto northbound State Route 99.

The pursuit was terminated near the E Keyes Rd exit due to safety concerns. It lasted about three minutes and covered a total distance of just over three miles.

The officer aired the vehicle’s description, a white Lexus coupe with a thin red line sticker on the trunk, over the radio so that other officers could be on the lookout for it.

Another officer who was working heard the description and thought it sounded like a vehicle that had taken him on a pursuit back in August. That officer was able to obtain a photo of the vehicle that had fled from him and sure enough, it had a thin red line sticker exactly where it was described. The photo was shown to the pursuing officer and he verified that it was indeed the same vehicle that had just fled from him.

Officers were able to identify Matiullah Amani, 24, of Turlock, as a person of interest due to him being who had fled in that vehicle back in August. When they ran him, they discovered that he was still on probation for that case.

A short time later, at 12:19 am, officers were dispatched to a weapon offense at The Boardwalk Apartments, 900 W Zeering Rd, after Amani’s sister had reported that he was there brandishing a knife.

Officers arrived and determined that no knife had actually been brandished and that the incident was just a disturbance, however, Amani’s sister reported that he had arrived in his white Lexus coupe that was in the parking lot. Officers checked the parking lot and found the vehicle that had just fled from them.

Based on the totality of the circumstances, officers developed probable cause that Amani was who had fled from them again.

Amani was arrested and booked into the Stanislaus County Public Safety Center on the charge of fleeing or attempting to elude a peace officer in a vehicle with disregard to public safety.

It should be noted that Amani had just finished serving about eight months in jail within the past few weeks for the previously mentioned pursuit, another pursuit the same night as that one, and a DUI.