E-mail Story
Print Friendly
Send E-mail
Reprint story
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Suspects May Be Linked to 10 Heists
By Maggie Ybarra
Journal Staff Writer
Police believe the suspects apprehended in Saturday's fatal shooting at a West Side restaurant could be connected to at least 10 other robberies.
Albuquerque police spokeswoman Nadine Hamby said investigators believe the suspects are from Central America, but police have been unable to verify their identities.
Police are working on the case with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Two suspects were booked Saturday night on murder charges and other felonies, Hamby said.
Police say as many as four were involved in the shooting and robbery at the Denny's restaurant at Coors and Iliff NW. A female cook was killed.
Police have not identified her other than to say she's between 17 and 19 years old.
One man was taken into custody soon after the robbery. A search for a possible getaway car led police to the Vista Mobile Home Community trailer park at 9600 Central SW, where police apprehended another suspect.
Police found cash and handguns in the car.
They spent part of the afternoon searching homes and shouting on a megaphone for another suspect to come out. Following an eight-hour standoff, police swarmed the trailer park but did not find additional suspects. One man interviewed by police said he may have accidentally given one of the suspects a ride away from the scene of the robbery.
The man said he, his 1-year-old daughter and a friend were on their way to a mall when they stopped to give another man a ride about 1 p.m. That man had been sitting under a tree near 86th and Central.
"We saw this one guy sitting under a tree near the Family Dollar (store), and we thought he was hurt because he had no shoes on and he was dusty and everything," the driver said. "We thought somebody had beat him up or something."
The driver said the man asked to be dropped off at the trailer park but started to panic after seeing multiple police cars parked outside it.
"When we got to the destination, he said, 'No, don't pull over here; get away from there,' " the driver said.
"So right away I clicked and I said, 'So, what, did you guys murder somebody or something?' " the driver said.
The man said he had killed someone, adding that there were guns stashed somewhere and that he had "already touched them."
The driver said the man then asked for a ride to a nearby McDonald's and to use the driver's cell phone.
"He made a phone call to somebody to come pick him up, and, after we dropped him off, we came straight back here to the (trailer park) to let (the police) know what was going on," the driver said.
Police say the man is a suspect in the shootings.
The standoff lasted from about 10:45 a.m. to about 6:30 p.m. During the standoff, Yvonne Herrera, a resident of the trailer park, said she was worried about her diabetic mother who was inside the trailer park when police arrived. Herrera said she was concerned the suspects were armed, dangerous and willing to do anything to avoid being caught.
"If they are desperate, they could go shoot someone else, and this mobile park has a lot of children," Herrera said.
You also can send comments via our comment form
|
|
