Alleged Gang Member Arrested in Park Street Armed Robbery Case

A reputed Norteño gang member was arrested at his Oakland home Wednesday morning in connection with the attempted armed robbery of a couple in the La Penca Azul parking lot last month, an Alameda Police Department spokesperson said.

Lt. Jill Ottaviano said the APD's Critical Incident Response Team (CIRT) took Alejandro Velasquez-Mendoza, 27, into custody about 9 a.m. on suspicion of armed robbery and making criminal threats of bodily harm. 

Just after midnight on Nov. 8, Velasquez-Mendoza approached a couple who were in their car in the rear parking lot of La Penca Azul, 1440 Park St., reached into the vehicle with a handgun and demanded the couple's belongings, according to the original police report.

The couple — a Hayward woman and a Burlingame man who were visiting Alameda — managed to speed away, knocking Velasquez-Mendoza to the ground, Ottaviano said.

Shortly before the robbery attempt, Velasquez had repeatedly tried to shoot his semi-automatic handgun into the air inside La Penca Azul, where he was a customer, Ottaviano said.

The gun, which apparently contained only one bullet, misfired and didn't go off, she said.

Wednesday's arrest followed more than a month of investigation by APD Detective Alan Kuboyama, Ottaviano said.

The arrest operation itself was massive, as dozens of police officers surrounded Velasquez-Mendoza's home on East 7th Street in Oakland, in an area between the Park Street and Fruitvale bridges.

Ottaviano said Velasquez-Mendoza occupies one of two units in the home, and police knew that children also live in the building.

After some negotiation, Velasquez-Mendoza came out of the building and surrendered without incident, Ottaviano said. He was taken to Santa Rita County Jail in Dublin.

Velasquez-Mendoza is one of nearly 40 alleged Norteño gang members who were named in injunctions issued in 2011 that prohibited them from gathering in Oakland's Fruitvale neighborhood, according to a 2012 article in the San Francisco Chronicle. [You may read that article and see a photo of Velasquez-Mendoza here.]

The injunctions were sought in a lawsuit filed by then-Oakland City Attorney John Russo, who later was appointed as Alameda's city manager.

Velasquez-Mendoza himself was shot in the liver while attending a friend's funeral in 2011, the Chronicle article says.

The Critical Incident Response Team that carried out Wednesday's arrest operation includes APD's SWAT and crisis negotiation teams, tactical dispatchers (who worked from a mobile command unit a safe distance from Velasquez-Mendoza's home) and tactical medics from the Alameda Fire Department, Ottaviano said. 

SWAT teams from the Oakland and San Leandro police departments assisted.

A total of about 40 people were involved in the operation, Ottaviano said.

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