WATSONVILLE—The man who was arrested on Dec. 22 on suspicion of robbing the Freedom Centre Rite Aid store in Watsonville at gunpoint 24-hours earlier has a lengthy history with local police.
Raymond Quiñonez, in late 2001, was arrested after making a string of bomb threats and placing several pipe bombs at area schools and other locations over a two-day reign of terror.
Quiñonez, then 31, was convicted of multiple felonies and sentenced to 12 years in prison.
He was released on parole on March 27, 2020, court records show.
On Dec. 22 Watsonville police arrested Quiñonez, now 52, near his home on the 500 block of Green Valley Road while serving a warrant. City of Watsonville spokeswoman Michelle Pulido said police were able to piece together a description of the fleeing vehicle after the 10:20am Rite Aid robbery the day before.
Police said Quiñonez, wearing a mask, brandished a handgun at a clerk at Rite Aid and ran off with an undisclosed amount of cash.
Pulido said Watsonville Police Department, in tandem with members of the Santa Cruz Auto-theft Reduction and Enforcement task force, took Quiñonez into custody and seized evidence, including a vehicle.
WPD Master Officer Charles Bailey said that a similar armed robbery happened at the same Rite Aid on Nov. 17. It is unknown if that robbery is connected to the Dec. 21 robbery.
Prior Incident
According to a Pajaronian article from Nov. 1, 2001, a first-grader at Freedom Elementary School found one of the pipe bombs Quiñonez placed during his spree in a sandbox at the school. The student brought it into the principal’s office, but since plumbing repairs had been underway at the campus, most assumed the device to be harmless, and the principal tossed the device in the trash.
However, when police received a bomb threat for Freedom School, the campus was evacuated and the Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Bomb Team was sent in.
Similar threats were also called in to Watsonville Community Hospital, Rolling Hills Middle School and the Crossroads Shopping Center, then Watsonville Police Chief Terry Medina said.
The FBI and ATF assisted WPD, the Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office and the California Highway Patrol in tracking down the bombs and swarming the targeted locations.
Then, on Nov. 2, police arrested Quiñonez after tracing his phone calls, the Pajaronian reported. He was arrested at his home in central downtown Watsonville where he was living with his wife and their child. He had reportedly been released from prison earlier the same year.
As many as 50 police from six law agencies teamed up in the 72-hour investigation and manhunt.
Reporter Todd Guild contributed to this story.
[An earlier version of this story had the incorrect date on which Quiñonez was released on parole. — Editor]
