Two arrested in connection with armed robbery
PALO ALTO >> Two men have been arrested on suspicion they robbed a Palo Alto supermarket at gunpoint in January. A third suspect remains at large.
The robbery was reported at the Safeway at 2811 Middlefield Road in the earlymorning hours of Jan. 10.
One suspect brandished a handgun at an employee and ordered him to the ground while a second suspect broke into the store’s pharmacy and stole prescription drugs, said Palo Alto police spokeswoman Janine De la Vega. A third suspect acted as a lookout.
De la Vega said police released surveillance images of the suspects and received a tip that helped identify two of them. The suspect with the gun was identified as 22-year-old Erik Eulogio Perez and the lookout was identified as 18-year-old Anthony Nicolas AlcantaraMedina, police said.
Detectives discovered Perez had been arrested and booked into Kern County jail on a charge of possession of a stolen vehicle. They served a warrant for his arrest Feb. 16, said De la Vega, adding that he will be transferred to Santa Clara County once his case is resolved in Kern County.
De la Vega said East Palo Alto police arrested Alcantara-Medina at a home in the 1000 block of Ruby Court on Feb. 24. He was booked into San Mateo County jail on a warrant related to the armed robbery in Palo Alto and a warrant related to a carjacking case in East Palo Alto.
The search for the third suspect is continuing, De la Vega said. Mothers Against Murder, a Los Altos-based nonprofit organization, paid a partial reward to the tipster who helped identify Perez and Alcantara-Medina and is offering the remainder for information that leads to the arrest and conviction of the third suspect.