Cash Register Robbery Suspects Identified
Lakewood Police have identified the robbery suspect shot and killed by SWAT team members Thursday afternoon as Jarrett Berlin, 27. His accomplice, Tara Salazar, 34, is in custody.
Berlin was shot at a condominium complex across the street from the Hampton Inn near Wadsworth and Hampden in Lakewood.
"He was challenged by the officers, he didn't comply. He made a movement that threatened the officers and at that time more than one officer fired and the suspect was shot," said Lakewood Police Officer Ty Countryman.
It all started just before one o'clock Thursday afternoon when the gas station at 1495 S. Sheridan in Lakewood was robbed. The clerk said man and a woman took the cash register and drove away.
The couple, believed to be Berlin and Salazar, threw the stolen cash register out of the car on South Wadsworth.
They crashed their car near Wadsworth and Mansfield and ran into an apartment complex at 7800 Mansfield Ave. That's where officers caught up with and arrested Salazar, but Berlin ran away.
Officers finally found him caught up with him. Berlin initially cooperated with the SWAT team, made up of Lakewood Police Agents and Jefferson County Sheriff's Deputies, but then told officers he would have to shoot them.
Officers said Berlin dropped his hands, and reached into his pocket. That's when the SWAT team fired on Berlin, killing him.
A search of Berlin revealed he did not have a weapon.
The cash register was found lying in the street at Wadsworth and Yale. Just how much cash was inside the register when it was stolen has not been released.
Salazar faces charges of robbery, criminal impersonation, hit & run, eluding and numerous traffic offenses.
Jefferson County Sheriff's Investigators are investigating the possibility that the couple was involved in a bank robbery earlier in the day.
