Police Department

SWAT, SIU and MCU Take Wanted Felon into Custody

Cpl. Teresa Fuller

Friday, September 23, 2016 at 2:21 p.m.

Spokane Police SWAT Team members assisted SIU and MCU last night in the 3800 block of east Pacific to take a wanted felon into custody. Vincent A. Cruz (50) was taken into custody for 1st Degree Armed Robbery and 2nd Degree Burglary.

The Spokane Police SWAT Team, Special Investigations and Major Crimes Units responded to the 3800 block of east Pacific yesterday, September 22, 2016, just before 10:00pm after developing information that wanted felon Vincent Cruz was in a residence at that location. Detectives were able to obtain search warrants for the location on Pacific last night to arrest Cruz.

The burglary charge is from June 19, 2016 when the Kalico Kitchen, 2931 N. Division was broken into. An undisclosed amount of cash and other miscellaneous items were taken from the business during the late night burglary. Cruz was identified as the suspect via surveillance footage taken during the time of the incident.

The robbery charges stemmed from a September 19, 2016 incident where Cruz allegedly robbed a male victim at gunpoint in the 3900 block of east Pacific. The investigation again led to Cruz as the primary suspect in the crime.

He will make his first appearance in court at 1:30pm today on those charges. The resources utilized in this search warrant were due to the crimes Cruz was currently wanted for, including the fact he was allegedly armed during the robbery. The Spokane Police Department's Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) team is a team of officers with tactical expertise that have the ability to respond to and/or rescue persons in crisis whose actions threaten their individual safety, the safety of the community, and the safety of responding officers which is why they were utilized in this instance. Because of this, not only were our officers uninjured, but the community was kept safe and the suspect was taken into custody safely. In fact, some of the neighbors expressed their gratefulness to officers for dealing with this problem house in their neighborhood; one gentleman even giving one of our officers a hug as thanks for a job well done.

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