PORT HUENEME : Bank Robbery Suspect Arrested
A 24-year-old Oxnard man suspected of robbing a Port Hueneme bank was arrested a day later when an off-duty reserve officer spotted him fighting outside a grocery market, police said Saturday.
Erik Mendez Ornelas ran from the Anacapa Market at 711 W. Hueneme Road after being confronted by the reserve officer late Friday night, police said. Officers then sealed off the area, and Ornelas was captured a block away from the market a short time later.
He was being held Saturday in Ventura County Jail in lieu of $50,000 bail.
The bank robbery occurred at 10:10 a.m. Thursday at the Bank of America branch at 755 W. Channel Islands Blvd.
Seconds later, a person standing outside the bank spotted a man who ran through the parking lot of a nearby shopping center and jumped into a car. The witness wrote down the car’s license plate, and later identified Ornelas as the suspect.
After Ornelas’ arrest on Friday, police also took into custody the man with whom he was fighting at the Anacapa Market. The man, whose name was not released, was booked into jail at the Port Hueneme station on suspicion of public intoxication and violating the terms of his parole.
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