On Wednesday, November 18, 2015, at 8 AM, North east officers were dispatched to a possible carjacking at the Swiss colony apartments near Cedar and Dayton Avenues.
The witness believed it was a carjacking of an elderly female adult and that the victim was forced inside her car, a blue Nissan four-door sedan, by a Hispanic male with many tattoos on his face -possibly a bulldog gang member.
The male suspect was accompanied by a possible female suspect described as a Hispanic female. Officers canvassed the area looking for the vehicle and an undercover tactical team officer located the vehicle driving in the area of Maple and Shields Avenues.
The Nissan was driven by the Hispanic male, later identified as Robert Piceno, 37 years of age, and the Hispanic female was also in the Nissan.
There was no elderly victim and it was determined this was not a carjacking. Piceno realized he was being followed by an undercover car and tried to evade the officer.
He stopped the Nissan on Sierra Vista Avenue just south of Fountain Way. Piceno ran westbound into an apartment complex at that location. A search was conducted but he was not located.
Scandinavian Middle School was locked down was the search way underway.
Approximately 30 minutes after the perimeter was concluded, Fresno County sheriffs department deputies were responding to an unrelated domestic violence disturbance in the 4700 block of E. Shields Avenue. When the deputies arrived in the area they saw Piceno and he ran from deputies. They believed Piceno was the suspect in the disturbance they were responding to in the 4700 block of E. Shields Ave. After a brief foot chase, Piceno was captured and taken into custody. He was then turned over to the Fresno Police Department.
Piceno was arrested on an outstanding felony warrant for domestic violence and also on a misdemeanor warrant for domestic violence. He was also charged with felony domestic violence and kidnapping for the incident this morning at Cedar and Dayton Avenues wherein he forced his girlfriend into the Nissan and punched her in the head causing a visible traumatic injury. He was processed at the Fresno Police Department identification section and he was then booked at the Fresno County Jail.
