West Covina purse snatch suspect caught by off-duty deputy; suspect linked to other crimes

WEST COVINA -- An off-duty deputy chased down a suspected robber and recovered a woman's purse Friday in a Target store parking lot, police said.
Brian Ciaccio, 21, of Azusa was also being investigated in connection with a kidnapping and robbery reported last week in Pomona after property taken in that crime was found in his truck, West Covina and Pomona police said.
The purse snatching was reported just before 11 a.m. at in the parking lot of the Target at the Eastland Shopping Center, West Covina police Lt. Marty Sevilla said.
Two men pulled up in a white Ford pickup truck and Ciaccio got out and approached a woman, the lieutenant said. He then grabbed her purse and ran.
"An off-duty (Los Angeles County sheriff's) deputy hears the victim screaming, chases down the suspect and detains him at gunpoint," Sevilla said.
The woman got her purse back, but left before speaking with police, he said.
Sevilla said investigators want to speak with the woman to aid in the prosecution of Ciaccio, Sevilla said.
The second man who was in the truck, described as a white man in his 40s, fled without the truck, police said.
Upon searching the abandoned pickup truck, Sevilla said, police found property that had been taken in a kidnapping and robbery reported in Pomona last week, as well as items stolen in a San Clemente vehicle burglary Thursday night.
In the Pomona crime, a man was renovating a house on the evening of Dec. 16 when two white men tied him up and stole his tools and car, Pomona police Sgt. Robert Devee said. The victim was not injured.
West Covina police turned Ciaccio over to Pomona police, where Devee said he was booked on suspicion of possession of stolen property as detectives continued their investigation.