Suspected GardaWorld robber held up same Santa Rosa armored car facility in 2011 heist

The suspect shot by a Santa Rosa police officer last week after a failed attempt to rob an armored car headquarters in town was identified Thursday by police as a convicted robber of the same facility in a violent 2011 heist, which netted almost $1 million in unrecovered funds.

Authorities made the connection after days of trying to identify 41-year-old Milton Gamez- Fierro, a previously deported felon who provided detectives with false identification, forcing them to wait on fingerprint and tattoo analysis.

“We were surprised to see that he was back out on the streets of Santa Rosa, and that he wasn't being supervised and had participated in another extremely violent crime here,” Santa Rosa Lt. John Cregan said.

One other man was convicted in carrying out the armed August 2011 heist, where prosecutors said masked men tied up two employees and made off with $1 million in cash stuffed into a duffel bag.

The reported mastermind, Monico Dominguez, was sentenced to 32 years in prison. He was arrested in August 2012 along with two other men, after another attempted heist at the same site, in what turned out to be a sting by Santa Rosa police.

Those arrests came several months after Gamez-Fierro was caught in an Oakland violent crime crackdown led by the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, according to Cregan and a news release at the time from the U.S. Department of Justice.

At the time of the 2012 arrests, another man suspected of helping storm the GardaWorld facility on Northpoint Parkway near Stony Point Road in 2011 was said by police to still be at large. He was never publicly named.

Gamez-Fierro, who was booked into the Sonoma County Jail on Thursday after being released from a local hospital, was that man, Cregan said. His bond was set at $2.5 million.

Gamez-Fierro's conviction in the 2011 heist was never reported. He was sentenced to four years on federal charges of robbery and possession of a firearm, according to Cregan. The case against him unfolded while he was jailed in Oakland, after federal investigators uncovered evidence that linked him to the heist, Cregan said.

Federal investigators informed Santa Rosa police of his suspected involvement, and detectives were asked to participate in interviewing him, Cregan said.

When asked why Gamez-Fierro only received a four-year sentence for the crime, compared to the 32-year prison term for Dominguez, the ringleader, Cregan said, “That would be a good question for the feds.”

A Justice Department spokesman based in San Francisco could not be reached Thursday night.

He was released from federal prison and deported in November 2015, according to Cregan. He was deported a second time in October 2016. Some time after his second deportation, Gamez-Fierro returned to Santa Rosa, without the knowledge of authorities, and rented a room on Zachery Place, in the northwestern corner of the city off Calistoga Road, Cregan said.

His reappearance at the scene of a prior crime in which he was involved shocked police.

“He was still on federal probation, but they weren't tracking him because he was deported,” Cregan said.

The attempted March 2 robbery played out just before 3 a.m. when, police said, Gamez-Fierro and an accomplice stormed the GardaWorld facility wearing ski masks and armed with handguns. Two armed employees were able to lock themselves in a walk-in safe and sound an alarm during the hold-up, police said. A Santa Rosa officer, Timothy Gooler, who was identified by the department Thursday, confronted Gamez-Fierro outside the building, police said.

Gamez-Fierro raised a handgun after he was ordered to drop it, police said, prompting Gooler to fire at him, striking him twice. Gamez-Fierro staggered to a nearby creek and was soon arrested, police said. The alleged accomplice, Jesus Gomez-Rosales, 29, of Los Angeles County, was arrested a short time later after he was found hiding in an armored car inside the facility, police said.

Gooler, a three-year veteran of the department, was placed on paid administrative leave and is expected to return to work next week, Cregan said.

Gomez-Rosales remained in custody with bail set at $2.1 million, according to Santa Rosa police.

Editor's note: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that Jesus Gomez-Rosales had bailed out of jail. He remains in custody with bail set at $2.1 million.