Photo: Joanna Mae Macy-Rodgers and Mark Morasky
SAN JOSE — A young woman who tried to evade the Santa Clara County Sheriff after parking illegally near the Chynoweth light-rail station in South San Jose was arraigned on February 20.
23-year-old Joanna Mae Macy-Rodgers, and now deceased 33-year-old Mark Morasky were seated in an illegally parked SUV, after were joyriding in a stolen vehicle on Valentines Day.
Macy-Rodgers has been charged with attempted murder of a peace officer after admitting to firing off multiple rounds from a shotgun. She had been trying to avoid being arrested for joy riding in a stolen vehicle with her boyfriend Morasky, who had a violent rap sheet. His criminal history included armed robbery and time served in prison for the offense.
According to authorities, the couple was so brazen to try and avoid being captured that Morasky at the wheel drove down towards Highway 85 at Blossom Hill Road, and entered the wrong way on Highway 87 to evade Santa Clara County Deputies.
A lookout from San Jose’s Airbus H125 (Air 3), Air Support Unit kept the pace and located the couple in a neighborhood, where they exited and took a UPS driver at gunpoint and made the driver take them out of the area, eventually stopping near Trimble and First Street in North San Jose.
A standoff ended with the release of the driver, and then Macy-Rodgers, before Morasky ran towards San Jose Patrol Officers who had blocked the scene. Morasky, running with a loaded shotgun, took aim, but before he could fire an SJPD Officer fired a single shot from his rifle, hitting the suspect. Morasky dropped the weapon and fell to the ground, where he died from his injury.
