Citizen Staff Writer
Law and Order Report
DAVID L. TEIBEL
dteibel@tucsoncitizen.com
Two Tucson women are being held in the Pima County Jail, accused of the gunpoint holdups Monday of a 60-year-old woman and a 70-year-old woman in separate cases, a Tucson police spokesman said.
Arrested were Yuliana A. Galviz, 20, of the 4800 block of East Chickweed Drive; and Karina Hernandez-Benitez, 21, of the 4500 block of South Paseo Rio Bravo, Sgt. Fabian Pacheco said.
In the first case, the 70-year-old was held up about 1:50 p.m.as she walked toward a store in El Con Mall near East Broadway and Alvernon Way, Pacheco said in a news release.
The woman told police that a red-colored sedan was driven up to her and a woman in the car pointed a pistol at her and demanded her purse.
The older woman was too stunned to immediately comply and the suspect, who was in the car’s passenger seat, reached out, grabbed the purse and the driver pulled away, Pacheco said.
The victim memorized the car’s license plate, Pacheco said.
Shortly after the mall-area robbery, someone used the woman’s credit cards to make purchases at several businesses, Pacheco said.
One of those businesses was a service station at South Park Avenue and East 22nd Street, where the woman’s credit card was used twice, Pacheco said.
He said robbery detectives went to the station and were trying to get surveillance video of the suspects when the red car drove by, heading south on Park.
Police pulled over the car at South Sixth Avenue and Lincoln Street and arrested Hernandez-Benitez and Galviz, Pacheco said.
During their investigation, detectives learned that a 60-year-old woman had been held up by two women about 6 that night as she walked near West Valencia Road and South Santa Clara Avenue, Pacheco said.
The 60-year-old had not reported the robbery out of fear, Pacheco said.
He said detectives recovered property belonging to both victims and a pistol.