Suspect Wounded After Store Holdup, Neighborhood Chase

A Garden Grove police officer on Saturday shot one of three armed suspects who allegedly robbed a convenience store at gunpoint and then led police on a chase, authorities said.

The wounded suspect, identified as Benjamin Espinoza, 20, of Garden Grove, was shot in the leg after pointing a rifle at a Garden Grove police officer, said Police Sgt. George Jaramillo. Espinoza was listed in good condition Saturday at UCI Medical Center in Orange, police said.

Police later arrested two other men believed to be accomplices after a house-to-house search of the neighborhood where the robbers abandoned a stolen getaway car. The two men were found in the attic of a residence within the search zone near Fairview Street and Trask Avenue, Jaramillo said.

Jaramillo did not name the two men who were arrested, saying police were still trying to determine whether they are the robbery suspects.

“Everything seems to be consistent with the people we’re looking for,” Jaramillo said.

The arrests followed a methodical three-hour search. Police from five law enforcement agencies and two heavily armed SWAT teams cordoned off a four-block area and hunted each house for the men. Garden Grove police got help from the Orange County Sheriff’s Department as well as police from Buena Park, Cypress, and Santa Ana, authorities said.

The chase began around noon when employees with the El Faro Market reported to police that three armed masked men robbed the convenience store of a “substantial amount” of cash. A patrol car followed the suspects’ vehicle and, after chasing them a few blocks, trapped them in a cul-de-sac on Salinaz Drive, police said. The men abandoned their getaway vehicle and ran into the quiet neighborhood bordering Santa Ana, Jaramillo said.

Police instructed the suspects to surrender, but one suspect turned his rifle toward a police officer. An officer fired one shot, striking the suspect in the leg. None of the suspects fired back at police.

The search required methodically checking out scores of homes, garages and yards within the four-block area, police said. If residents were not home when armed SWAT teams knocked on their door, Jaramillo said, units would go inside if there was a “reasonable likelihood” the suspects might be hiding there.

Police received a number of 911 calls from local residents who reported two men running through their backyards.