Casimiro Gutiérrez, a 26-year-old Yakima man suspected of having robbed a local Subway sandwich shop at gunpoint on Sunday, November 25th, was arrested by Yakima police at a house in the 1100 block of South 8th Street at about 8:00 pm on Monday, November 26th. While being interviewed by police, Gutiérrez confessed to the Sunday night armed robbery of the Subway store located at 1300 North 40th Avenue.
Gutiérrez was booked into the Yakima County Jail on Monday evening, where he remains, after having been charged with 1st degree robbery.
Yakima police responded to an armed robbery call at the 40th Avenue Subway shortly after 7:30 pm Sunday night. Witnesses at the Subway told officers the suspected robber had fled the sandwich shop and gotten into the passenger side of a nearby vehicle.
Yakima Police Department (“YPD”) Sergeant Joe Salinas located the vehicle the suspected robber was reported to be in and conducted a traffic stop in the 700 block of North 40th Avenue. Once the vehicle stopped, the suspected robber exited from the passenger side and began running eastbound.
Sergeant Salinas directed the suspected robber to stop, but the suspect did not follow Sergeant Salinas’ commands. Sergeant Salinas then fired a single shot at the suspect from his YPD-issued rifle. The suspect continued to run from Sergeant Salinas and was not located again. At the time, it was not known whether the suspect had been struck by the shot fired by Sergeant Salinas.
After having been arrested, Gutiérrez said he had not heard the shot fired by Sergeant Salinas. No bullet wounds were found on Gutiérrez’ body.
The driver of the vehicle Gutiérrez reportedly excited from, 22-year-old Omar Gutiérrez, the brother of Casimiro Gutiérrez, was arrested by YPD officers at the scene of the traffic stop and booked in the Yakima County Jail Sunday night, where he remains.
In accordance with YPD policy, Sergeant Salinas has been placed on paid administrative leave while an investigation of the incident is conducted by the Yakima Valley Special Investigations Unit, which consists of investigators from multiple Yakima Valley law enforcement agencies.
More information regarding this case will be provided when it is available.