A little more than a month after a violent attack and robbery in Rowland Heights, the Sheriff’s Office says they’ve made an arrest. Alex Rozier reports on the NBC4 News at 4pm on Monday, August 15, 2022.
A little more than a month after a violent attack and robbery in Rowland Heights, authorities have made an arrest.
The individuals involved got away with a $60,000 Rolex in the parking lot of a 99 Ranch Market. Cell phone video showed a man and woman attacked and held at gunpoint in the parking lot.
After injuring the couple and stealing a Rolex watch the individuals took off.
Edward Cai, the owner of the Happy Harbor Restaurant, said the incident happened outside of his business.
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"Lot of my friends they pay a lot of attention to this," Cai said. "We were pretty scared and less and less people came to consume because of this case."
Cai said he was very pleased to learn about the arrest.
The crime occurred on July 9 in the market's parking lot. A man and woman were loading items into their car after shopping when the robbers attacked.
"This past Friday LASD Crimes Detectives arrested him," said Steven Ruiz an LASD Major Crimes Investigator.
Deputies arrested Demoryie Watts for robbery, felony for the possession of a firearm, and a parole violation. Authorities have not recovered the Rolex.
"During a search warrant of the suspects residence we were able to capture additional pieces that had strong evidentiary value, the weapon that was used in the crime, and recover the suspect’s vehicle," Ruiz said. "There’s several robberies we suspect him of, all throughout the Los Angeles County area."
In the robbery in Rowland Heights, investigators said Watts didn’t act alone.
"We are aware of a second suspect and we are diligently working to build that case before we arrest that person," Ruiz said.
Though they were hurt, the victims are recovering. People at the shopping center are relieved after news of an arrest.
"The news today, we’re pretty happy, LASD they did a great job and properly cracked down on the robbery case," Cai said.
Sheriff Alex Villanueva also spoke at the press conference Monday and took shots at the DA George Gascón. His main point was that sheriffs did the work and made the arrest but he worries the DA won’t aggressively charge the person responsible.
NBC4 reached out to the DA about their plans on this case but did not hear back.
