Summercrest Apartments
FRESNO – Police arrested a man they believed stole marijuana, cell phones, and car keys from victims in southwest Fresno
Police received a call on Sunday around 9 p.m. that a robbery had taken place at the Summercrest Apartments at 1160 E. Church Ave, just east of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.
The victims told officers that they were at the apartments to pick up a new acquaintance when the two suspects approached them with handguns. The victims handed over a sandwich bag full of marijuana, their wallets, cell phones, money and car keys, authorities said.
The suspects allegedly told the victims to stand still for five minutes and warned them not to call the police. The suspects then drove off with the victim’s vehicle, a 2005 Acura, police said.
Less than an hour later, an officer found the vehicle parked in Easton with a man and woman inside. The man, 28-year-old Jose Manuel Torres-Escobar, was positively identified as one of the suspects in the robbery and carjacking, police said.
Torres-Escobar and the woman were both taken into police district headquarters for questioning. The woman said she did not know the car had been stolen. Torres-Escobar admitted to stealing the car and said the robbery was supposed to be a fake purchase of a half-pound of marijuana that they were going to steal, police said.
Torres-Escobar was arrested and booked into the Fresno County Jail for robbery and carjacking. The other suspect, described as a Hispanic male in his 20s, has not been found.
