2 Men Sought in Robbery at Hotel

Two men who committed an armed robbery at the Residence Inn in Oxnard on Friday were forced to flee on foot when their getaway car wouldn’t start, officials and witnesses said.

The holdup occurred about 2:30 p.m. when the robbers, one armed with a sawed-off shotgun, entered the hotel at 2101 W. Vineyard Ave. and demanded money from two desk clerks, according to Oxnard police.

The pair made off with an undisclosed amount of cash, and no one was injured, officers said.

The robbers ran out the front door to a black Ford Thunderbird in the parking lot but then fled on foot toward a nearby golf course when the car failed to start, witnesses said.

The inn, formerly known as the Radisson Suite Hotel, sits at the first hole of the River Ridge Golf Club in north Oxnard.

The golf course is bordered to the north by the Santa Clara River.

For more than an hour, SWAT officers in golf carts searched the golf course.

A dozen more officers surrounded the hotel while a sheriff’s helicopter checked the riverbed and surrounding neighborhoods by air.

Patrol officers were also stationed on residential streets that border the golf course.

There were no arrests as of late Friday, but officers found a shotgun in the suspects’ car.