On January 23, 2023 at 9:39PM the Oakley Police Department responded to the Chevron station at 5433 Neroly Road for a strongarm robbery that had just occurred.
A store employee reported a Hispanic adult male, wearing black clothing and gloves entered the store and demanded money from the register.
At 10:31PM the Oakley Police Department was notified the Contra Costa County Office of the Sheriff was in pursuit of a vehicle that was heading into our jurisdiction. Our officers believed the vehicle being pursued could have been associated with our robbery based on the description of it.
Officers responded to assist and we took over the pursuit as it entered our jurisdiction. Our officers chased the vehicle until it made a turn onto a dead end street (Landis Avenue) the suspect fled from the vehicle and Oakley officers Brett Jackson and Malik Jackson chased him down an alley and caught him as he tried to jump over a fence.
The suspect in this case is identified as Jorge Lara, 25, Oakley.
Lara had an arrest warrant related to a parole violation and robbery. Lara was also found to have large amounts of cash on his person and the Oakley Police Investigations Bureau is looking into whether or not Lara may have been involved in a string of similar robberies in Oakley and Brentwood a couple of weeks ago.
Lara has been booked at the main jail in Martinez.
“Once again I stand proud of my officers and supervisors to take an aggressive stance against crime and to quickly piece together multiple pieces of simultaneous information and establish a nexus to not only what they had going on, but also to previous crimes against our residents and business owners. Jorge Lara placed several innocent people at great risk of injury, or worse, due to his reckless, dangerous and unlawful driving demeanor. During the preliminary investigation of our patrol officers we are left with the opinion the vehicle Lara was driving was indeed used during the robbery at 5433 Neroly Road. Lara will need to answer for his current arrest warrant and if we establish his culpability for any additional robberies I urge for him to be held accountable to the maximum level possible.”
-Chief Paul Beard
