Man charged with attempted armed robbery
26-year-old arrested and booked into Santa Fe jail Friday; police have yet to identify accomplice
A Santa Fe man was arrested Friday on suspicion of attempting to rob the Amigos Latinos market on Osage Avenue at gunpoint.
Police have not yet identified his alleged accomplice.
Jose Soto-Torres, 26, is charged with two counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and one count of attempting to commit an armed robbery, according to online court records.
Deputy police Chief Matthew Champlin wrote in an email Monday officers were dispatched to Amigos Latinos around 11:20 a.m. Friday following a report of the incident.
A criminal complaint filed Monday in Santa Fe County Magistrate Court says a person who called 911 described two would-be robbers — one in “all black” and another wearing a white “biohazard” suit.
Police interviewed two store employees. One told officers the man in black clothing pointed a gun at them and demanded they get on the ground. The other employee said the man in the biohazard suit stood by the door.
There were customers in the store, one of the workers said, adding she believed the man with the gun became “spooked” because he fled from the store. A customer came inside after the incident and gave her a photo of the suspects’ vehicle and its license plate, she said. The complaint describes the vehicle as a brown or tan Chevrolet Tahoe.
The woman’s co-worker told officers he grabbed a machete.
Champlin confirmed nothing was stolen from Amigos Latinos.
The woman who took the photo of the suspects’ SUV told police one of the men was unable to get in the vehicle before the other drove away, according to the complaint.
Soto-Torres was detained during a traffic stop a few minutes after police sent an alert to other agencies with a description of the Tahoe.
Champlin said the traffic stop occurred around 12:20 p.m., an hour after the attempted robbery.
Soto-Torres told police he went to Amigos Latinos to buy cigarettes and left the market to fill up his vehicle with gasoline, the complaint says. He said he didn’t know anything else that had happened there.
While police haven’t identified the second suspect, Champlin said officers found a white biohazard suit and BB gun in a trash can on Llano Street. Police have not confirmed whether the BB gun was the weapon used during the incident, Champlin added.
Soto-Torres was booked into the Santa Fe County jail Friday afternoon, according to the facility’s online records.