Bullet from wild car chase imbeds in child's room
By Kevin Deutsch
Tuesday, December 04, 2007
One of the bullets fired by the Three Amigos armed robbers during Friday's high-speed chase on Atlantic Avenue ripped through the window of a home and came within 20 feet of a two-year-old boy having his diaper changed, the toddler's mother said Tuesday.
At least three bullets were fired by the robbers as they tried to elude the grocery store's owner, but instead of hitting Sian Kiat Koh , one round struck his Mercedes, a second killed 70-year-old Samuel Salomon, and another sliced through the window of the toddler's nine-year old sister's room, imbedding in a cabinet door, said her mother, Gloria Lozano-Figueroa.
Figueroa and her daughter were not home, but a babysitter was in the next room, changing Figueroa's two-year-old son in front of another window. The babysitter, who is in her 60s, heard what sounded like a "bomb," but thought it was just a car crash on Atlantic Avenue, Figueroa said.
"An angel was certainly watching over them," said Figueroa, 38, who lives in Delray Lakes Estates. "I am sorry to hear that Mr. Salomon was not as lucky." The men accused of Salomon's killing were in court Tuesday, where a judge ordered them held without bond. One of their lawyer's placed blame on Koh for pursuing the suspects, saying his decision to chase the robbers led to Salomon's "unnecessary death." "What's he, like, Robo-cop? There's a person dead because a storeowner chased after these ... suspects," said Gordon Richstone, the attorney for one of the accused robbers, Roger Rodriguez.
Figueroa said her son very nearly became the second casualty caused by a stray bullet Friday.
She had been at work when the shooting happened, and came home to find helicopters buzzing overhead. She and her daughter noticed the blinds in her room were disturbed. They saw a small hole in the wall.
"Mommy, is that a bug?" her daughter asked. Figueroa read reports of the shooting and manhunt, then realized the tiny hole had come from a stray bullet. She called the sheriff's office, which is investigating her report.
"What could have happened is very scary," said Figueroa, whose back yard faces Atlantic Avenue. "It was a freak thing." Luis Alfonso Reyes Castillo, 22, and Rodriguez, 29, were ordered held without bond Tuesday on first-degree murder charges for the armed robbery and chase that ended with Salomon's death.
Castillo and Rodriguez were allegedly caught on video robbing the Three Amigos store and its customers of up to $30,000 in cash. Friday is the day that laborers come in to cash their checks at stores like Three Amigos and the gunmen might have been involved in at least three other similar robberies in the county.
As Koh chased their getaway car at speeds over 100 miles per hour, the suspected robbers fired back, accidentally shooting into a Ford Windstar and killing Salomon, who was driving with his wife, making last minute preparations for Hanukkah.
Richstone said he was appointed to the case Monday and did not have the opportunity yet to go over the details with Rodriguez or watch the surveillance video.
"I just talked to my client. He's in tears. Obviously there's an unnecessary death," Richstone said.
But he also placed blame on Koh for pursuing the suspects on Florida's Turnpike to the west Atlantic Avenue exit, west of Delray Beach. Salomon was driving east on Atlantic when the bullet struck him.
"If somebody's robbing somebody with a firearm you let them take the money and leave. This was totally an unnecessary death. It does not justify what these idiots did during the robbery, but the store owner should be held responsible," said Richstone. "You can't be chasing after people with guns." Castillo's mother, girlfriend and other relatives drove up from Miami to support him in court. They declined to talk about him after the hearing.
They hired lawyer Alan Glueck to represent Castillo in the case.
"Obviously in these kind of cases, everyone is a victim. Their heart goes out to the family (of Salomon)," Glueck said.
He said his client was traumatized by the situation and sorry that someone died.
"It's my understanding he did take part. It's my understanding he was not the shooter," Glueck said after the hearing.
A third suspect, Victor Salastier Diaz Estevez, 19, is also in jail without bail.
Two more suspects, known only as George and Choco, are being sought.
Anyone with information is asked to call the Palm Beach County Violent Crimes Task Force at (561) 688-4000 .
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