Rohnert Park man arrested in armed robberies

A Rohnert Park man suspected of carrying out a series of armed robberies across two counties was in jail Wednesday, Santa Rosa police said.

Detectives connected Selso Elleso Orozco, 37, to two robberies in southwest Santa Rosa and another two in San Rafael, Santa Rosa detective Sgt. Josh Ludtke said.

“He was on a spree,” Ludtke said Wednesday.

The robberies were similar. Orozco, his face covered with a mask or clothing, approached people in or near their cars in parking lots and pulled out a handgun, demanding their cash, wallets, cellphones and jewelry, police said.

One robbery occurred within view of the victim’s family, sitting in a nearby parked car, Ludtke said.

The robberies started about 9 p.m. Saturday in a parking lot at a Sebastopol Road market. Orozco pointed a gun at a man eating in his car and demanded “everything he had,” Ludtke said.

The suspect took the man’s belongings before fleeing in a gray Toyota sedan, police said.

About noon Sunday, he returned to the same area. This time he robbed a man walking to his car after using an ATM at the Exchange Bank branch on Dutton Avenue, Ludtke said.

The victims gave similar descriptions of the robber and his car.

Santa Rosa detectives reached out to regional agencies and learned of two similar robberies in San Rafael, where an armed man approached victims in parking lots and threatened them with a handgun, Ludtke said.

The agencies worked together to identify Orozco, who was arrested Tuesday afternoon in a business parking lot on West College Avenue. Police had followed him as he drove to various Santa Rosa businesses, suspecting he was looking for another victim, Ludtke said.

Inside his car was a loaded semi-automatic handgun, and in one pocket he had a face mask, Ludtke said. Santa Rosa and San Rafael police also searched Orozco’s home and found clothing and stolen property tying him to the four robberies, Ludtke said.

Orozco was booked into Sonoma County Jail on suspicion of four felony counts involving robbery and use of a gun. Bail was set at $275,000.

San Rafael police were expected to file Wednesday similar criminal charges against him in Marin County.

Ludtke said there may have been other robberies prior to this weekend. He asked anyone with information to call detectives at 707-543-3590.

You can reach Staff Writer Randi Rossmann at 707-521-5412 or randi.rossmann@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter?@rossmannreport.