Slain Robbery Suspect Identified

Authorities on rsday identified the robbery suspect shot and killed by a Glendale police officer Tuesday in Boyle Heights.

Edgar Fregoso, 22, died after he was shot and taken to a nearby hospital. He was among the suspects in a robbery last week in which a 26-year-old woman was shot four times and had nearly $3,000 stolen from her purse outside a Glendale supermarket, Sgt. Rick Young of the Glendale Police Department said Thursday.

Police were following a lead on the suspect’s whereabouts when Fregoso saw the officers in a Boyle Heights alley, Young said. Fregoso, who was in a Ford Bronco with a woman, drove the vehicle directly at homicide investigator Ben Mihm, who shot Fregoso several times in an attempt to stop the vehicle, Young said.

The woman in the car, 29-year-old Cynthia Contreres, was also a suspect in the robbery, police said. She suffered shoulder injuries and was being held in the Los Angeles County Jail’s medical ward on charges of attempted murder, robbery and conspiracy, officials said.

A third suspect in the robbery, 21-year-old Aran Renteria of Los Angeles, was arrested in Temple City on Tuesday. Investigators filed charges of attempted murder and robbery against him Thursday.

Glendale police say the robbery investigation is ongoing, and that there may be a fourth unidentified suspect in the case. The Los Angeles Police Department has begun a parallel investigation into Tuesday’s shooting because it occurred in its jurisdiction, LAPD Officer Guillermo Campos said.