More By allowing ads to appear on this site, you support the local businesses who, in turn, support great journalism. Gene Neely will not be returning to head the Lathrop Manteca Fire District. It wasn’t your average Sunday spin behind the wheel, but some Manteca Police officers did get to make a pretty lengthy drive in pursuit of a suspect who fled to Modesto and then drove back to Manteca before being apprehended. The entire ordeal started early Sunday morning when a caller witnessed a man physically assaulting a woman on the 1300 block of Historical Plaza Way. When officers arrived, the male suspect was fleeing in a white Kia. They pursued the man onto the southbound lanes of Highway 99 towards Modesto where the California Highway Patrol joined the pursuit.