San Jose teenage suspects hold eatery employees at gunpoint
Morgan Hill – Three San Jose men were arrested Wednesday after they held employees of a local sandwich shop at gunpoint, forcing them to lie on the floor of the eatery, before fleeing, police said Daniel Brasuell, 18, Fabian Aguirre, 18, and a 17-year-old male were taken into custody when police used a high risk vehicle maneuver at the Tennant Avenue overpass at Highway 101.
They were arrested on suspicion of armed robbery, false imprisonment, grand theft and conspiracy to commit a felony.
Dispatchers received a call at 9:59pm that the Togo’s Sandwich shop in the Vineyard Town Center had just been robbed, Morgan Hill police Cmdr. Joe Sampson said.
Employees told police that two Hispanic males wearing bandanas around their faces had entered the restaurant as they were closing, drawn a weapon and forced them to go to the rear of the building and lie on the floor.
One of the suspects then jumped over the counter, held a gun to one employee’s head and told him to open the register.
The second suspect, they said, forced the other employee to open the safe, asking if he wanted to die. A third employee was told to kneel on the floor, the employees told police.
Once the safe and several cash registers were emptied, the suspects fled with the cash in a vehicle driven by a third Hispanic male.
MHPD Officer Joe Burdick was responding to the scene at a high rate of speed, Sampson said, when he spotted a dark-colored Honda traveling eastbound on Tennant Avenue, also traveling fast. The Honda was similar to the incomplete description the Togo’s employees had given dispatchers.
Burdick stopped the Honda using a high risk vehicle stop maneuver, Sampson said, at the Highway 101 overpass on Tennant Avenue. While holding the suspects at gunpoint, Burdick called for backup.
When other officers arrived at the scene, the suspects were removed from the Honda, and the vehicle was searched. Sampson said a simulated handgun and a back pack containing $441 in cash were found inside the vehicle.
Approximately $460 was found on the suspects.
The three suspects were identified by the Togo’s employees, Sampson said.
Brasuell and Aguirre were booked into Santa Clara County Jail, and the minor was taken to the Juvenile Detention facility in San Jose.
“This was an excellent effort in teamwork,” MHPD Chief Bruce Cumming said Thursday. “Every day we have good teamwork, but sometimes you don’t see it as obviously as in this case. Our dispatchers were on top of it, they got the word out quickly and stayed in communication with our officers. And Joe (Burdick) was on top of his game, looking for the car as he drove.”
There have been several robberies in Morgan Hill involving weapons of some kind in the past year. The most recent was on Feb. 14, when a male gave a Wells Fargo Bank teller a note and used his hand under his shirt to simulate a weapon.
On Dec. 16, 2005, a local check cashing business was robbed by three men with guns. On Nov. 20, 2005, the Sizzler Restaurant was robbed, but it was not clear if the suspect had a gun. A Starbucks coffee shop was robbed by a lone gunman on Oct. 21, 2005.
Cumming said many people see Morgan Hill as an “isolated village.”
“We don’t have armed robberies in Morgan Hill every day, but I’m concerned that we’re starting to see a few more of them,” he said. “This is the kind of crime that scares people. It’s extremely dangerous.”
Marilyn Dubil covers education and law enforcement for The Times. Reach her at (408) 779-4106 ext. 202 or at mdubil@morganhilltimes
