Pair Arrested in Video Store Robbery

Two men suspected of exchanging gunfire with sheriff’s deputies during a car chase after a Jamul video store robbery were arrested Friday morning, authorities said.

According to Sheriff’s Department spokeswoman Pearl Janulewicz, Rome Valencia, 21, and Stephen Noche, 23, walked out of a canyon about 7 miles from the robbery scene, where they had hidden overnight. They entered a nearby church about 9 a.m. to ask to use the phone, she said, but church workers suspected they were the people who had left a bullet-riddled car in the church parking lot Thursday night and called authorities.

The men ran from the church, but workers caught one of them and deputies arrested the other a short distance away, Janulewicz said. Neither man was injured, she said, but both looked very tired.

The suspects, who live in Paradise Hills, do not appear to belong to any gang, Janulewicz said.

Valencia and Noche were booked into County Jail downtown on suspicion of robbing Video Junction, in the 13000 block of California 94, and of firing at deputies with an assault rifle during the chase. Nobody was injured.

The chase reached speeds of 70 m.p.h. through the curving roads of Casa de Oro and ended when the the car, which had been reported stolen in San Diego, was abandoned in the parking lot of Faith Chapel in the 9400 block of Campo Road, deputies said.

About 50 deputies and California Highway Patrol officers, along with 15 canine units, combed the surrounding canyons, but called off the search about four hours later when it grew dark.