Brad Azcona booking photo – Monterey County Sheriff
Suspect Was Arrested After Standoff
SALINAS—Salinas Police have arrested wanted homicide suspect Brad Martin “Nicholas” Azcona after a several hour standoff in a North Salinas Neighborhood on Thursday night, October 8. Azcona was finally taken into custody and transported to Monterey County Jail charges of homicide an attempted robbery.
This cul-de-sac in Salinas was subject to a SWAT standoff late into the night
Detectives from the Salinas Police Department developed leads that wanted suspect Brad Azcona, 23, was held up inside a residence on the 600 Block of Seneca Place in the north side of Salinas. After surveillance confirmed that he was indeed at the residence, Salinas Police immediately had the house surrounded with their SWAT team and air support from the California Highway Patrol.
After the surrounding neighborhood was cleared, police began to call for Azcona to exit the house, but they were met with no response. The Hostage Negotiation Team was called in to assist with the situation. The team spent several hours attempting to contact Azcona but got no response from him.
After exhausting all efforts to communicate, the SWAT team deployed tear gas into the residence, but Azcona still failed to exit the house. After the SWAT team made entry, Azcona was eventually located hiding in the crawl space under the house just before midnight.
He surrendered without further incident. He was transported and booked into the Monterey County Jail on numerous charges.
Azcona seen in a surveillance image in a suspected robbery.
Azcona has been hiding from police since September when detectives suspected him of being the shooter in the homicide of 44-year-old Ramon Herrera that occurred in East Salinas on September 23. Azcona was also suspected in an attempted robbery in which he used a handgun that occurred in North Salinas, and was listed as a person of interest in the shooting death of a 16-year-old boy, Carlos Robles, who was killed on September 8.
A GoFundMe page has been established to raise money in support of Robles’ family. He was a student at North Salinas High School who loved football, and had made the varsity squad. He accomplished this despite being born with only one kidney. He was shot multiple times by a suspect on a bicycle as he sat in a car just around the corner from his home. The car’s driver was also hit, but survived. Police did not believe the shooting was gang related, and Robles was not involved with gangs, according to his family.
The shooter, who some suspect was Azcuna, was wearing a black hooded sweatshirt as he shot into the car, and then fled on the bicycle. Azcona does have a lengthy history of other violent crimes in Salinas, and was also on parole and wanted by the State Parole Board.
