Police arrest suspect in armed robbery
Mom identifies son as man who allegedly robbed Golden Pride restaurant
Days after popular burrito and barbecue chicken restaurant Golden Pride was held up by an armed robber and surveillance video was made public, tips started trickling in that the culprit could be a former employee.
And police say one of the first to call was the suspect’s own mother.
Joseph Saiz, 33, was arrested Thursday and booked into the Metropolitan Detention Center. He is charged with robbery with a deadly weapon and aggravated battery.
Golden Pride manager Chris Romero said he was working the
registers around 6:15 p.m. Friday when a man walked into the restaurant on Lomas NE near Yale.
“I kept my eye on him the whole time, he didn’t look like he was here for business,” Romero said in a phone interview. “I asked if he wanted to order, he said no, he wasn’t sure yet. He backed up, but didn’t look at the menu.”
Romero said that’s when he knew a robbery was about to go down.
“I was looking for a gun in his waistband,” he said. “Sure enough, he pulled out a gun from his pocket.”
Romero said he couldn’t immediately open the registers and the suspect, later identified as Saiz, jumped on top of the counter impatiently, knocking computers and equipment onto the floor.
He said Saiz fired a bullet into the ceiling and pushed the still-hot barrel of the gun into the manager’s forehead. Then he fired into the ceiling again.
“He was very reckless and he didn’t care if he shot the ceiling or shot me,” Romero said. “I really felt that.”
A family of three, with a young child, who had been eating at a nearby table fled the building.
Romero said after he was able to open the registers, Saiz grabbed two cash registers tills and fled, getting away with more than $300. The whole incident lasted about 2 minutes. After surveillance footage of the robbery was released and the video began circulating online, Saiz’s mother called detectives to say the suspect was her son, according to a criminal complaint filed in Metropolitan Court. Others quickly corroborated that, pointing out that Saiz had worked at Golden Pride in 2008.
When crime scene investigators returned to the scene Thursday to look for bullets, Romero said they found one on the roof that had punctured the bottom of an empty tar bucket, ricocheted off the inside and come to a rest.
“We opened up the bucket and the bullet was still in it,” Romero said.