SAN DIEGO -- Two alleged car burglars, including one accused of driving a pickup truck toward a U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent who fired at the vehicle, were ordered Monday to stand trial on assault and burglary charges.

After a two-hour preliminary hearing, Judge Desiree Bruce-Lyle ruled enough evidence had been presented for Nicholas Burnthon, 23, to proceed to trial on one count of assault with a deadly weapon and two counts of car burglary.

Andrew Sigsbee, also 23, is charged with only the car burglary counts.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection Agent Paul Morris testified that he was in full uniform and walking through his Grantville apartment parking garage to his car about 1:10 a.m. on July 30 when he heard clanging and banging noises.

Morris said he noticed a white pickup truck unusually parked across two marked spaces, then saw a hand in a stairwell -- the person snapping his fingers as if trying to get somebody's attention.

Suddenly a man, later identified as Sigsbee, came running out from behind a vehicle and ran past Morris and out of the parking garage, the witness testified.

Morris said he gave up on chasing Sigsbee and went back into the garage.

"I heard an engine start," Morris testified. "I hear some tires squealing."

Morris said the white truck started toward the exit but changed direction and was heading directly toward him at about 15-20 mph, prompting him to pull his service weapon.

"I yelled stop three times initially," the agent said. "He pointed the vehicle directly at me. I fired a shot."

Morris said the driver of the truck, identified as Burnthon, stopped about 15-20 feet from him and put his fingers up off the steering wheel as if to give up and was handcuffed.

Sigsbee was arrested at a 7-Eleven store about a half-mile away near Qualcomm Stadium.

Officers testified that the front passenger window was broken out of a Chevrolet Tahoe parked nearby in the parking garage.

A remote global positioning device stolen from a car inside the parking garage was found inside the truck Burnthon was driving, officers testified.

Later, when the defendants were in a police holding cell together, Burnthon explained to Sigsbee what happened in the garage after he ran off, said San Diego police Detective Michael Lambert.

"He (Sigsbee) said, 'Shoulda ran his ass over,'" the detective testified.

The defendants -- who are both out of jail on bond -- were ordered to return to court Dec. 3 for arraignment in Superior Court and to get a trial dates.

Burnthon faces up to eight years in prison if convicted, and Sigsbee would face up to four years behind bars, said Deputy District Attorney Renee Palermo.