Bodycam video released of pot shop robbery suspect shot, killed by police
SEATTLE - The Seattle Police Department released bodycam video from this week’s deadly shooting of a pot shop robbery suspect.
On March 16, police said three suspects held a marijuana shop on Factoria Boulevard Southeast and Southeast 40th Lane at gunpoint and fled. The suspects took cash and products from the store.
Officers chased the suspects through Renton into South Seattle.
"Any decision to pursue a suspect is highly scrutinized, and we balance the threat posed by the suspects with the risk the pursuit poses to the community," explained Chief Wendell Shirley. "In this case, these suspects were armed and extremely dangerous, and we needed to get them into custody to prevent further harm."
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Video shows 2 suspects holding Factoria pot shop employees at gunpoint
Police say a suspect in an armed robbery at a Factoria marijuana shop was killed after firing at police in south Seattle. Two other suspects were arrested.
Police arrested two of the suspects and a third ran and hid in a nearby shed.
A Seattle SWAT officer gave a warning to the suspect in red to show his hands.
According to police, the suspect fired at officers, and they returned fire. The 19-year-old suspect was hit and died at the scene.
You can watch the bodycam video, which was released to the public on Friday, in the link below or here:
The suspect wearing the black coat in the video has been identified as Anthony Barajas-Robledo. Barajas-Robledo has previously been featured on Washington's Most Wanted and was wanted for a robbery of a Kitsap County gun shop where he and other accomplices made off with around 100 guns.
Because of his long criminal record, bail was set at $500,000.
Police also identified the officers who were involved.
"The officers who fired their weapons in this incident are Noah Zech and Carl Anderson. Zech has been with the department since 2005. Anderson has been with the department since 2001. They have been placed on paid administrative leave per department policy," they said in a release.
The Seattle Police Department’s force investigation unit continues to investigate the shooting and the Bellevue Police Department will continue to investigate the robbery at the dispensary.
U.S. Attorney Nick Brown has taken an interest in the rash of pot shop robberies and the extreme use of guns.
Brown says that while these suspects are robbing something that's federally illegal, law enforcement is concerned about the violence associated with those robberies.
"They are not robbing it because it's a marijuana business-- they are robbing it because those businesses have a lot of cash on hand because of this tension between state law and federal law and the inability of those businesses to use our federal banking system," Brown said.
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