Security tape leads to robbery charge
Deputies believe homeless man responsible for early morning gas station incident caught on camera
Deputies suspected a homeless man held up a gas station in Canyon Country at gunpoint Saturday morning; by Saturday night, a suspect was arrested, Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station officials said.
Matthew Girard, described as a transient by deputies, was arrested on his 27th birthday on suspicion of robbery.
On Saturday, about 3 a.m. a man entered a business on the 28500 block of Sand Canyon Road and allegedly pointed a black semi-automatic handgun at the store employee behind the counter, demanding money, Shirley Miller, spokeswoman for the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station, wrote in a post on the sheriff’s Facebook page.
The clerk complied with his orders and gave him the contents of the cash register, she wrote.
The suspect exited the business and was seen getting into a gold-colored, four-door sedan, driving eastbound on Soledad Canyon Road, and out of view.
On that same morning, a detective assigned to the case distributed the suspect and suspect’s vehicle images obtained from the store’s video surveillance to patrol deputies.
“She joked to deputies ‘not to come back to the station unless they had the suspect in custody.’ One deputy took her words to heart,” Miller wrote in her post.
About 11:30 p.m. Saturday night, a deputy who was nearing the end of his shift spotted a man and vehicle that matched the wanted suspect at a business near the original robbery location.
In fact, the suspect was still wearing the same clothes. It was a match, Miller wrote.
Girard was transported and booked at the SCV Sheriff’s Station on suspicion of felony robbery charges.