Gainesville Police arrested a local boy Wednesday and a local man Thursday after police said they robbed a motel employee at gunpoint. Two additional suspects remain at large.
On Nov. 29 at about 5:53 a.m. Daniel Anderson, 17, called a man about meeting at the ABC Motel on Southwest 13th Street, where he would ask the man for drugs just minutes later, according to the police report.
The man said he didn’t have drugs, but he mentioned a motel employee who was getting towels for a leaky faucet, according to the report.
The employee then arrived to open a storage closet and 18-year-old William Castaneda, accompanied by Anderson, approached from behind with a 9mm pistol. They knocked the employee to the ground and then ran after they failed to get anything, according to the report.
The employee later told police one of the men wore a red bandana. Police later found a similar bandana in Anderson’s home, folded like a mask, according to the report.
Last month, Castaneda drove his mother’s car to Gateway at Glades apartments where he and Anderson robbed a man of his backpack and jewelry at gunpoint, according to a police report.
Police arrested Anderson and Castaneda on one charge each for armed robbery and took them to the Alachua County Jail where, as of press time, Anderson remains in lieu of a $75,000 bond. Castaneda was released Friday morning on his own recognizance.
Contact Giuseppe Sabella at gsabella@alligator.org and follow him on Twitter @Gsabella
