OXNARD : 2 Suspects Held in Armed Robbery

Two Los Angeles-area ex-convicts were being held without bail in Ventura County Jail on Monday following their arrest for breaking into an Oxnard apartment and robbing its residents at gunpoint, police said.

Tony Shane Wilson of West Hills and David Brian Combest of Sunland, both 24, entered the apartment in the 1800 block of South Victoria Avenue about 6:40 p.m. on Sunday, said Detective Michael Palmieri of the Oxnard Police Department.

Armed with a handgun and sawed-off shotgun, the suspects demanded jewelry and cash from four adults in the apartment and then fled to their car, Palmieri said.

Shots rang out as the suspects fled, but it is unknown who fired them, he said.

A Port Hueneme police officer observed the suspects speeding from the area and chased them until they crashed their car near Hemlock Street and Capstan Drive.

The suspects then fled on foot and were caught a short time later by Port Hueneme and Oxnard police officers, with assistance from a Port Hueneme police dog, Palmieri said.

Wilson is on parole for auto theft and other miscellaneous offenses, Palmieri said. Combest is a paroled murderer, having served 10 years in a youth correctional facility in Los Angeles for the crime, he said.

Armed robberies staged within a residence are not common in Ventura County, Palmieri said. He said he did not know whether drugs were involved or if the victims knew the suspects prior to the robbery.

“I don’t know how many happen in Los Angeles, but it is pretty unusual here,” he said.