Robbery Suspect Held After Chase

A knife-wielding robbery suspect led police on a high-speed chase down the 118 Freeway through two counties Tuesday morning before wrecking his car and being hunted down by police dogs.

Los Angeles police K9 officers pulled Armando Ceniceros, 28, of Simi Valley from thick brush surrounding a stream bed near Sylmar just before 11 a.m.

They turned Ceniceros over to Simi Valley police, who arrested him on a slew of charges ranging from robbery to assault with a deadly weapon, said Simi Valley Police Sgt. Bob Gardner.

The chase began with the apparent robbery of Coast Check Cashing on Los Angeles Avenue in Simi Valley, Gardner said.

Witnesses told police they heard shouts coming from the check-cashing shop at about 9:25 a.m.

Then they saw Ceniceros run out of the store, followed by store owner Ilia R. Zalatkov, who was clutching a stab wound on his neck.

Zalatkov, 48, of Thousand Oaks, later fell into shock and was taken to Simi Valley Hospital to be treated for a severe stab wound. Hospital officials Tuesday evening listed Zalatkov in critical condition, but said he is expected to survive.

“I heard screaming and I saw them both coming out,” said neighboring shop owner Mohammad Kassem. “The second guy ran out with his hand on his neck. I ran after the first guy, I chased him to the corner, and he got into a car and took off . . . and then I signaled to another car to follow him.”

The second motorist took down the license plate number from Ceniceros’ blue, late ‘70s Chevrolet Nova and phoned in the description to police, Gardner said.

Police dispatched a patrol officer to the 118 Freeway, where he spotted Ceniceros’ car and began chasing him eastward, Gardner said.

Within minutes, cruisers from the California Highway Patrol and Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department joined the chase, as did a helicopter from the Los Angeles Police Department.

Ceniceros turned north onto the Golden State Freeway, at times nearing 110 mph, Gardner said.

But at the junction of the Golden State and the Antelope Valley freeways, Ceniceros ran off the shoulder and lost control of the car, which rolled several times down an embankment, landing on a surface street below, Gardner said.

With a neck injury, Ceniceros still ran from the crash site and hid from police, Gardner said.

Police searched for about an hour before K9 dogs sniffed him out in a nearby building. CHP officers said the dogs then flushed him into a stream bed behind the building, where they chased him down and bit him until police arrived to arrest him.

Afterward, police picked up cash that scattered on the roadway outside Ceniceros’ car after the wreck.

Police took Ceniceros to Providence Holy Cross Medical Center in Sylmar.

He was treated there for cuts and bruises, then returned to Simi Valley police for formal arrest, and ultimately transferred to the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department pending arraignment.

Court records show Ceniceros was convicted in October 1993 on a charge of grand theft for stealing from a Moorpark business called Expert Products, which sells cleaning solvents.

He served 66 days of a 270-day sentence, then was released to serve five years probation with conditions that he see a psychotherapist, pay $1,801 in restitution and not drink or possess alcohol, according to court records.

Ceniceros also was slapped with a contempt-of-court order in February 1995 for violating a restraining order after a Simi Valley woman filed a complaint alleging domestic abuse, court records show.

Times correspondent Scott Hadly and Times photographer Jayne Kamin-Oncea contributed to this story.