Two Petaluma teens arrested in string of armed robberies

A pair of Petaluma teens were arrested Friday in connection with armed robberies committed around the county in August and September, including one instance when a gun was held to a victim’s head while he withdrew money from an ATM, police said.

James David Baetz, 19, and Ricardo Daniel Ortiz-Martin, 18, were arrested at a Santa Rosa liquor store about 12:46 p.m. Baetz was exiting the shop while Ortiz-Martin waited inside a car filled with cash, narcotics, a gun and “other evidence linking them to the robberies,” a news release from the Petaluma Police Department said.

The first in a string of three robberies occurred about ?5:30 a.m. Aug. 11 at a Wells Fargo ATM in the Washington Square Shopping Center on South McDowell Boulevard. Police say the two men came up to a customer, pointed a gun to the side of his head and told the man to hand over about $100.

The second robbery happened more than a month later, when on Sept. 20 two men entered a 7-Eleven on Old Redwood Highway in Petaluma at 1:23 a.m. and again brandished a gun, demanding money from the clerk, police said.

The next day, they hit up a 76 gas station on Redwood Drive in Rohnert Park, police said.

The two men were taken to the Sonoma County Jail on suspicion of robbery, conspiracy to commit a crime, violation of probation, possession of narcotics and possession of drug paraphernalia.

You can reach Staff Writer Christi Warren at 707-521-5205 or christi.warren@pressdemocrat.com. ?On Twitter @SeaWarren.