One Suspect Captured, Two at Large in Tree Section Burglary

One suspect is in custody and two others are still at large after being caught by a Manhattan Beach homeowner as they burglarized his 35th Street house.

Los Angeles resident Jose Alberto Silva, 33, was captured and arrested by police along Rosecrans Avenue after he allegedly ran from the scene of the burglary.

Seconds after arriving at his Tree Section home Wednesday afternoon and noticing that his kitchen door had been forced open, Scott Longhurst called out to his wife and kids.

Instead of a reply he encountered an unknown man descending the home's staircase.

"It just didn't register what was happening," said Longhurst, whose wife and two young children were not home at the time. "I looked at him and I'm like, 'What the hell's going on?' And I just turned around and ran out the back door to my neighbors' and called 911."

Meanwhile, the neighbors across the street were placing their own 911 calls, after seeing at two men jump from Longhurst's second-floor balcony into his front yard before taking off down 35th Street toward Laurel Avenue. Police said Silva fled through the front door of the residence.

When Longhurst emerged from the house next door, some neighbors informed him that several neighbors were pursuing the suspects.

One "literally ran down the street in his bare feet" before jumping into the car of another neighbor to pursue the men.

Police arrived within minutes of the 5:45 p.m. calls and captured Silva running along Rosecrans Avenune. The two other suspects escaped.

Police sealed off the neighborhood and conducted a door-to-door search with the help of officers, K-9 units and a helicopter from four neighboring police departments, according to Manhattan Beach Police Sgt. Tim Hageman.

At 9:20 p.m. the search was called off with no trace of the suspects other than a glove dropped on the street.

Police recovered a Nintendo Wii console and games, which had been stuffed inside a pillowcase and a backpack belonging to Longhurst's daughter.

Longhurst said his watch had also been taken, but that other valuables including crystal and expensive electronic items were untouched. "We kind of frightened each other off, so to speak," he said of the intruders.

Witnesses have varying descriptions of the suspects, Hageman said.

"What I was told was that one was white and the other two looked to be either Hispanic or black," Longhurst said. He described the suspect he encountered in the house as either a Hispanic or light-skinned black man in his 20s or early 30s wearing a light-colored hoodie and jeans.

"Having seen what they didn't take, it could have been much worse," he said. "And thank God no one was hurt. That's the main thing."

Police dusted the house and some of the family's belongings for fingerprints. An officer on the scene said it appeared as though one or more suspects attempted to break in through the kitchen window before prying open the back door with a crowbar or similar instrument.

Silva was recently paroled for a previous burglary and has a lengthy criminal record involving numerous arrests for property crimes, according to Manhattan Beach Police Officer Stephanie Martin.

Anyone with information on Wednesday's burglary or the two at-large suspects is asked to call Det. Andrew Enriquez at 310-802-5128.