VENTURA : Police Arrest Pair After Car Chase

Two armed men who allegedly held up a Ventura liquor store Thursday led police on a 105 m.p.h. chase up and then down the Conejo Grade before they crashed their stolen car in Camarillo, authorities said.

The chase covered about 25 miles on freeway and surface streets through Ventura, Camarillo and Thousand Oaks.

Robert Lee Lewis, 26, described as a transient, and Darrel Brown, 24, of Los Angeles, were arrested for suspicion of robbery after they allegedly entered Log Cabin Liquor on Alameda Avenue in an unincorporated area of Montalvo at 6:45 p.m., armed with a shotgun and handgun. One of the men fired a warning shot with the handgun, and the pair fled with an undisclosed amount of money, said Ventura County Sheriff’s Sgt. Bob Young.

Escaping in a car that was later determined to be stolen from Anaheim, the two men drove east on the Ventura Freeway, Young said. They were spotted at the Conejo Grade by units from the Sheriff’s Department, who followed the suspects’ compact car to Wendy Drive in Newbury Park.

The men exited the freeway at Wendy Drive, but quickly got back on the Ventura Freeway headed west.

The men left the freeway again at Santa Rosa Road and drove east, but near Barbara Drive the driver lost control of the vehicle, which spun around and collided with a westbound car driven by an unidentified woman.

Cash and liquor believed to be stolen from the Montalvo market and guns were recovered from the men’s car, Young said. The robbery victims then identified Lewis and Brown at the scene, he said.

Neither the suspects nor the driver of the other car was injured in the collision, Young said.