Police: 2 suspects arrested, 1 at large in Cotati robbery investigation

Police on Sunday arrested two men and were looking for a third in connection with an armed robbery in Cotati, authorities said.

The robbery happened shortly after 3 p.m. at a parking lot in Cotati, where someone selling a vehicle had arranged to meet with a potential buyer, according to Petaluma Police Lt. Nick McGowan.

The seller was held at gunpoint by three men who demanded and took cash, McGowan said.

Cotati police began chasing the trio who were in a gray Mustang. The pursuit continued into Petaluma, where the men left the car and ran off on foot, McGowan said.

A Mustang with a rear driver’s side tire that appeared to have been blown out and was driven down to the rim, sat abandoned Sunday afternoon along Wilson Street, not far from Lolita’s Market along Lakeville Street.

A witness told authorities she saw two men run from the car and hop a fence next to the market into a yard where propane tanks are stored. She said she saw them then run southeast toward East Court. The third man, she said, took a hangun from the Mustang and fled in a different direction.

The Petaluma Police Department issued two shelter-in-place orders while authorities searched for the suspects with dogs and drones. The first order was issued at about 3:30 p.m. for residents in the area of Vallejo and Jefferson streets. The second came just before 5 p.m. for Lindberg Circle.

The search included the Petaluma and Cotati police departments and the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office. Some law enforcement personnel carried assault-style rifles.

After nearly three hours of searching, authorities found two suspects in the backyard of a home near East Court and Lindberg Circle, McGowan said.

Neither of them had a gun when they were found, according to McGowan. He could not immediately identify them.

Authorities believe the third suspect has a pistol, McGowan said.

For one Petaluma resident who had planned on watching a Christmas light show outside a friend’s decorated Lindberg Circle home, his night took an unexpected turn.

Rather than watching Christmas lights as they shone on Charlie Brown Christmas figures, he instead watched as police cars and a SWAT Bearcat vehicle drove past homes decorated with lights and other Christmas figures in search of suspected thieves.

“I was heading out to watch a light show and then I see SWAT cars driving up and down this neighborhood,” Colin McAndrews said, adding that the family who had planned the light show didn’t step outside their home due to the shelter-in-place order. “The people are locked up and scared to death inside there.”

Petaluma police lifted the shelter-in-place orders shortly after 7 p.m.

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