Bend taco shop robbery suspect arrested after return holdup 3 nights later
Police say Warm Springs woman was wearing same distinctive clothes
(Update: Adding video, comments by cashier who gave chase)
BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) – The suspect in an armed robbery of a Third Street taco shop was chased by workers and caught by police late Wednesday night after officers said she returned to the business and held it up for the second time in three nights.
Shortly before 11 p.m. Wednesday, an officer on patrol in the area of Lucy’s Taco Shop in the 900 block of Northeast Third Street spotted several workers running out of the business, chasing a person that matched the description of the suspect in a June 28 robbery. The woman was seen heading east on Irving Avenue, Sgt. Rob Emerson said.
The officer joined in the chase as other police headed to the scene. Emerson said the suspect, Sharena Warner, 24, of Warm Springs, was found behind a storage area of a business at Fourth Street and Irving Avenue.
Miller Warner was taken into custody without incident, Emerson said, and had a handgun, cash and electronics in her possession. She also “was wearing the same distinct clothing she had been wearing during the previous robbery,” the sergeant said in a news release.
Officers learned the woman had returned to the taco shop and robbed it again. She allegedly threatened an employee with the handgun and stole cash, a credit card reader and a cellphone.
Miller Warner was arrested and booked into the Deschutes County Jail on two counts of first-degree robbery, five counts of unlawful use of a weapon and menacing. Her initial bail totaled $245,000, pending arraignment.
One of the workers who gave chase Wednesday night recounted what happened with NewsChannel 21 on Thursday.
"It angered me, because the lady (co-worker) was crying, and she said, 'Not again -- I am basically giving my job earnings away,'" cashier Panfilio Munoz said through an interpreter.
"I felt bad, and I went after her (the suspect)," Munoz said. "I was 3 meters behind her. I could have reached her, but I didn't, because I was scared she was going to shoot."
In the earlier incident, police were dispatched just before 11 p.m. Sunday to a reported armed robbery at the taco business, which recently expanded from Redmond into the former Baja Fresh location on Third Street.
Workers described the suspect as a Hispanic female wearing a mask who used a handgun to demand money and ran with an unspecified amount of cash.
Video surveillance showed the suspect was wearing a black hooded sweatshirt, with the hood up, and “distinct writing” (RAIDERS) on it. She was determined to be of unknown ethnicity, with a dark complexion, between 5-foot and 5-foot-3 inches tall. Police officers and detectives began working on possible leads.
Warner spoke quietly at her first court appearance Thursday afternoon, where she was appointed a public defender. She corrected her name to Sharena Jean Warner (not Miller Warner as police had said earlier), and Circuit Judge Raymond Crutchley set bail at $200,000 bail.
If she is able to post bail, Crutchley imposed conditions including no contact with the taco shop or the named people she threatened, as well as not to own any firearms. She's due back in court on Thursday, July 9th at 1:30 p.m. on an expected formal indictment.
