Police nab two bank robbery suspects

S.J. Cahn

WEST SIDE -- Police arrested two suspected bank robbers Thursday

morning after a brief chase that, a witness said, nearly ended in

tragedy.

“I heard this scuffling, and I could just picture (the officer) like

this,” said Nicole Williams as she put both hands in front of her like

she was holding a gun. “The cop is pleading with him ... and (the

suspect) says, “So what are you going to do to me?’

“The cop resisted from pulling the trigger,” Williams continued,

adding that she awoke to the sounds outside her bedroom window. “You

could just hear the anguish in the officer’s voice.

“I didn’t move out of my bed. I was waiting for a bullet to come

through the wall.”

While the presence of about a dozen officers, firetrucks and

ambulances are unusual, police activity -- including nighttime helicopter

flights -- is relatively routine in the area north of 19th Street and

west of Harbor Boulevard, Jennifer Sperko said.

“I heard the sirens so loud because they were right out in front of my

house,” she said.

Police responded to a 911 call from a witness at about 9:15, said

Police Lt. John FitzPatrick.

“They came in wearing black ski masks, and they ordered the employees

onto the floor,” he said.

The suspects made off with $3,200 from the Bank of America in the 500

block of West 19th Street.

They were identified as Antonio Robinson, 21, and Toriano Brooks, 25,

both of Long Beach.

The suspects left through the bank’s rear entrance away from 19th

Street. They then ran through several backyards, hopping walls along the

way, FitzPatrick said.

The chase was nearly textbook. One officer pursued the two suspects on

a motorcycle while numerous other officers formed a perimeter at Bernard

Street.

“They eventually ran into the officers who were waiting for them,”

FitzPatrick said.

The only glitch in the chase was when the motorcycle officer, Bryan

Watkins, crashed in the parking lot of the El Pollo Loco on Harbor

Boulevard. He cracked his helmet and suffered neck and wrist injuries.

However, he did get up immediately and continue to chase the suspects,

witnesses said.

Watkins was treated at the department’s medical center.

During the chase, Brooks sustained an injury to his ankle when he

jumped one of the walls. By the end of the chase, both his shirt and

pants were torn.

He also dropped the money while being pursued, and it appeared he

attempted to retrieve the loot before he was apprehended, witnesses said.

The money ended up strewn throughout a back alley, in small piles of

$10s and $20s. Police believe they recovered all the stolen money,

FitzPatrick said.

Brooks was treated at Hoag Hospital for his injuries and released into

police custody.

After Robinson was captured, he told police that he had tuberculosis

and was contagious. Officers took precautions, covering his face with a

mask in case he was telling the truth.

Like Brooks, Robinson was treated at Hoag and released into custody.

Both are being held at the Costa Mesa City Jail on $50,000 bail.

Both suspects spent close to an hour sitting on the street, about a

block away from each other.

The two men have not said whether there were others involved. However,

no vehicle was found at the scene.

“They haven’t said there are, and we don’t have any information that

there are,” FitzPatrick said.

One witness said he saw the suspects carrying guns, but none of the

bank employees did, he added. Officers found no guns in their search of

the area.