Simi Valley armed robbery trio rounded up

SIMI VALLEY, Calif. That suspect broke into a home through a back door around midnight. However, when the owners pushed him out, he jumped the fence into an adjacent property, broke into a water heater closet, busted through the ceiling and then crawled up into the attic to evade police.

Police surrounded the home, located at Tapo Canyon and Alamo Street in east central Simi Valley. The standoff was short-lived, and the suspect gave himself up to the SWAT team and crisis negotiators around 7:30 a.m.

The suspect was not armed, but police continued their search for the weapon used in the robbery.

The robbery took place around 11 p.m. Saturday at a 7-Eleven located at Sequoia and Los Angeles avenues.

The three suspects beat up the store clerk, held him up at gunpoint, robbed the store and then fled in a car.

"He told me to open the register," the clerk said. "He held my collar. He took the cash."

The clerk alerted police and officers were able to spot the getaway vehicle and pull it over. Authorities took two of the suspects into custody, but one made a run for it.

That last suspect is the same man who tried to hide from police in a Simi Valley residential area. Nearby neighbors were terrified for the entire duration of the barricade.

"About midnight last night, he kicked in my back door and came in my house, and we tried to push him out the front door. He broke loose from me and my mother-in-law and ran right back out the back door," described Simi Valley resident Mary Jane Hernandez.

Police said that two of the suspects are 16-year-old males from Panorama City and the third suspect, the driver, was identified as 20-year-old Sergio Romero of Reseda.

City News Service contributed to this report.

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