Police Conduct Door-to-Door Manhunt for Armed Robbers : Oxnard: As unnerved residents watch, an area of 20 homes in La Colonia is sealed off. But suspects in jewelry heist escape.

Armed with automatic weapons, Oxnard police sealed off an area of 20 homes in the La Colonia neighborhood Thursday morning in a door-to-door search for two armed robbers who held up a jewelry store and were seen running into the residential area.

The manhunt--watched by frightened residents for 90 minutes--began after two suspects, one carrying a machine gun and the other a semiautomatic handgun, robbed Roberto Moita at his jewelry store at 537 S. A St. shortly after 10 a.m.

Police said they took a reported $10,000 worth of jewels before running across the 3rd Street bridge on Oxnard Boulevard and into La Colonia.

Approximately 15 police officers--SWAT team members, a K-9 unit, detectives and even bike-patrol officers--cordoned off a block-long area between 2nd and 3rd streets and Roosevelt and McKinley avenues, where they believed the men were hiding, Sgt. Cliff Troy said.

Residents peered out the windows of their small pink and yellow houses, while several others stood on the sidewalk watching the home searches. After 90 minutes, however, officers determined that the suspects had escaped.

“The police knocked on my door and said they were searching for somebody,” said Manuel Serros, 48, who lives on the corner of 2nd Street and Roosevelt Avenue. Serros said he offered to let officers search his home, but they declined.

“The police come over here, I welcome them,” Serros said, adding that crime in his neighborhood is out of hand. “It’s just a cesspool here.”

Graciela Cortes, 40, who lives on McKinley Avenue, said she was frightened by the armed officers at the end of her street.

“We didn’t see anything, just lots of cops around with their guns drawn,” she said. “It’s scary.”

Moita said the robbery was the fourth at his jewelry store in the six years he has owned it. He was alone in his store when the two men walked in and asked for money and jewels, Moita said.

“They say, ‘If you don’t put jewelry in the bag, we blow your head off,’ ” Moita said. The men, one wearing a stocking mask over his face, took $2,000 in cash and an estimated $8,000 in jewelry, including two diamond and ruby bracelets valued at $2,000 each, Moita said.

After the suspects left, Moita pressed a burglar alarm and officers from the Oxnard Police Department arrived about 15 minutes later, he said.

Residents in the La Colonia neighborhood reported seeing the suspects, who were described as young Latino males, Troy said. One was wearing a mask and a white-and-black striped shirt and the other a black sweat shirt with a Raiders football insignia on the front, police said.

“Both of them were seen jumping a fence in a side yard at 2nd and Roosevelt,” Troy said. Officers set up a perimeter in the area and started going through houses.

Troy said residents consented to the searches and none voiced any complaint.

An officer was injured during the search, bitten on the hand by a K-9 dog.

Troy said the dog “got excited” and bit Sgt. Randy Coates, coordinator of the K-9 unit, when he accidentally tripped. Coates was treated and released from St. John’s Regional Medical Center for a minor cut, Troy said.