SJPD arrests two in Senter Road armed robbery

An armed-robbery case in South San Jose turned into a two-city investigation — and that is the part that makes this more than a routine arrest blotter item. San Jose police say two men held up a business on Senter Road late on April 21, then detectives linked them to another armed robbery in Morgan Hill about an hour earlier. The arrests happened fast for one suspect and later for the other, but the bigger point is that investigators now think the same crew was moving across city lines in a single night. That raises the stakes for merchants well beyond one block. ### What happened on Senter Road? Police say officers were called at about 11:33 p.m. on April 21 to a business in the 4200 block of Senter Road. Detectives say two men went inside, pointed firearms at an employee, and stole money before leaving. Nobody was physically hurt, but the use of guns turns this into the kind of case robbery units treat as urgent from the start. ### Who got arrested? SJPD identified the suspects as Emilio Sanchez-Gonzalez, 23, of Merced County, and Andrew Larios, 21, of Gilroy. Police say Larios was found by Gilroy police on April 22 in Gilroy, one day after the robberies. Sanchez-Gonzalez was arrested later, on May 6, by SJPD detectives in Merced County. Both were booked into Santa Clara County Main Jail on armed-robbery charges. (sjpd.org) ### Why is Morgan Hill part of this? Turns out detectives did not stop with the San Jose case. While working the Senter Road robbery, they concluded the same two suspects were involved in a separate armed robbery at a Morgan Hill business roughly an hour earlier that same evening. That detail matters because it suggests a short, mobile robbery spree rather than a one-off crime tied to one neighborhood. (sjpd.org) ### What did police recover? After identifying the suspects, detectives got arrest warrants and search warrants for residences tied to them. During those searches, police say they recovered cash and a firearm. That does not prove every detail of the case by itself, but it gives prosecutors something more concrete than witness descriptions alone — basically, the sort of physical evidence that can help stitch two incidents together. (sjpd.org) ### Why do the dates matter? One suspect was arrested the next day. The other was arrested about two weeks later. That split tells you something about how these cases often work: police may lock down one person quickly, then use follow-up investigation, warrants, and interagency help to find the second. In this case, Gilroy police and SJPD both played roles, and the later arrest happened out in Merced County. (sjpd.org) ### Is the case finished? Not quite. Police are still asking anyone with information to contact the SJPD Robbery Unit or Silicon Valley Crime Stoppers. That usually means detectives are still tightening the timeline, checking for additional witnesses, and making sure there were no other connected incidents that night. ### Why should local businesses care? Because the pattern here is the warning. (sjpd.org) Two businesses in two cities were allegedly targeted within about an hour. For store owners, that is the nightmare version of a robbery case — not just an isolated hit, but suspects who may have been actively moving from one target to the next. ### Bottom line The headline is two arrests. The more useful takeaway is how the case came together: one late-night robbery on Senter Road opened the door to a second case in Morgan Hill, two named suspects, and evidence recovered through search warrants. (sjpd.org) For San Jose and South County businesses, that is the real story.