Hostage, 2 Thieves Die in Botched Fresno Robbery

Two robbers and a hostage died Tuesday after a botched robbery attempt at a jewelry store, police said.

A SWAT team stormed Ly Tai Jewelry after attempts to phone the suspects inside failed. They used bullhorns to order the suspects to surrender but got no response.

The SWAT team then set off four flash grenades outside the front of the store before entering the back of the shop where the suspects’ bodies were found.

Fresno police spokesman Gil Hernandez said the assailants, believed to be a man and a woman, apparently killed one of the two owners and then fatally shot themselves sometime during a nearly four-hour standoff.

“We made no contact at all. Apparently the shootings were early on,” Lt. John Fries said. “When the officers forced their way in through the back, they found two bodies on the floor and what appeared to be a large amount of cash scattered on the floor.”

Officers found a third body, believed to be the co-owner, near the counter in the front part of the store.

The names of the suspects and victim were not immediately known. All had been shot in the head.

Fries speculated that the suspects killed themselves and the suspect rather than surrender.

The store, on Belmont Avenue on Fresno’s low-income south side, was operated by two brothers.

The standoff began Tuesday afternoon after one of the brothers noticed something suspicious about the couple, who had visited the shop an hour earlier, Fries said.