HUNTINGTON BEACH : 4 Robbery Suspects Arrested After Chase

Police arrested four Long Beach males suspected of armed robbery and auto theft Thursday night after a chase and a three-hour search involving helicopters and canine teams from four other cities.

Huntington Beach Police Sgt. Ed Deuel said the robbery took place about 10:45 p.m. in a beach parking lot on the south side of Pacific Coast Highway near Golden West Avenue.

Two men, one armed with a shotgun, allegedly accosted the two robbery victims and fired one shot over their heads before taking their wallets.

A short time later, police spotted the suspects in a late-model car with two other men at Hamilton Avenue and Brookhurst Street, about 4 miles from the robbery scene.

The suspects then led police on a long chase over neighborhood streets, ending at Garfield and Golden West avenues. The men stopped the car, jumped out and “took off running,” Deuel said.

Deuel said the car was “much faster” than any of the Police Department’s vehicles, but the department’s helicopter was able to stay over the car throughout the chase.

Two of the men were apprehended immediately after they got out of the car, but two others were found only after a three-hour search involving canine teams from Westminster and Fountain Valley and police helicopters from Costa Mesa and Anaheim.

One of the men was “trapped and captured by a Westminster canine,” Deuel said. He suffered “minor dog bites” and was treated and released at Pacifica Community Hospital in Huntington Beach. The fourth man was found shortly thereafter.

The car driven by the four men had been stolen in Long Beach a few hours earlier, police said. A shotgun was found in the car.

Booked at the Huntington Beach Police Department on suspicion of robbery, grand theft of an automobile and weapons charges were Jose Cruz Mendoza, 19, and Salvador Delgado, 18, both of Long Beach.

The other two, whose names were not released because they are under 18, were booked on the same charges at Juvenile Hall.