Cypress : Two Men Arrested in Shoe Store Robbery

Two Garden Grove men were arrested on suspicion of robbing a Cypress shoe store at gunpoint, police said Thursday.

The suspects were apprehended about 10 minutes after a man robbed the Payless Shoe Store of $150 cash and then fled with another man on a motorcycle Wednesday night, Cypress Police Sgt. Rick Hobbs said.

Michael Joe Richmond, 32, and Michael Lee Shaw, 34, were being held on $50,000 bail each at the Cypress City Jail. A clerk at the shoe store, along with customers who witnessed the robbery, identified both men as the bandits, Hobbs said.

The incident occurred about 8:30 p.m., when a man later identified as Richmond allegedly entered the store at 6178 Lincoln Ave. armed with a .45-caliber automatic handgun, Hobbs said. The man demanded the cash and then ran from the store and across Lincoln, where another man was waiting on a motorcycle, Hobbs said.

The pair rode off in an unknown direction. About 10 minutes later, a patrol officer at a fast-food restaurant spotted two men on a motorcycle that matched the robbers’ descriptions. After the clerk and other witnesses allegedly identified Richmond and Shaw, the two were arrested, Hobbs said.