Armed Robbery Suspects Arrested
Steve Stewart (AKA Jusitn Stewart), 21, and Raven Lopez, 21, were arrested and charged after an Armed Robbery of a Wendy's that occurred earlier today.
At about 10:25 a.m., Northeast Area Command officers were dispatched to an armed robbery of the Wendy's located at 4800 Menaul Blvd NE. Officers received information a white male armed with a handgun entered the store with a mask and demanded money from store employees. The male was observed getting into a silver vehicle occupied by another individual as the get away driver.
Officers were able to find this vehicle at the Motel 6 located at 3400 Prospect Ave NE and located the two subjects. Officers attempted to make contact with Stewart and Lopez who were found to be in one of the rooms at the motel and both refused to exit the room. Due to the offenders refusing to follow the officers orders to exit, they were considered barricaded subjects in the room. The call was made a SWAT Call due to their actions.
SWAT and Crisis Negotiation Team Officers arrived and evacuated the area for the safety of the other guests at the motel. Officers made several attempts to make contact with Stewart and Lopez who were still inside the room. Eventually Lopez stepped out of the room and made contact with officers. Stewart still refused to exit however eventually stepped out and made contact with officers.
Officers located the vehicle the duo used as a get away vehicle in the parking lot and determined the vehicle was a stolen vehicle. Also located in the motel room was the handgun believed to be used in the robbery earlier in the day.
Stewart was charged with Receiving/Transferring a Stolen Motor Vehicle, Armed Robbery with a Deadly Weapon, Aggravated Assault with a Deadly Weapon, Tampering with Evidence and Conspiracy to Commit a 2nd Degree Felony.
Lopez was charged with Possession of Drug Paraphernalia and had an outstanding misdemeanor warrant.
Stewart has an arrest history dating back to 2006 and Lopez has one prior arrest being last year.
SWAT, CNT and field officers did an outstanding job in taking two more violent offenders into custody safely, professional and without incident. We want to thank the guests of the motel and the public for their patience and cooperation while this situation was resolved.