MORENO VALLEY - A fourth suspect is now in custody in connection with the robbery of a Moreno Valley credit union last month.

Andrew Pearson, 25, of Los Angeles was arrested late Thursday, Jan. 3, on suspicion of robbery, conspiracy, gang association and using a firearm during the commission of a robbery after deputies served a search warrant at a

residence in the 23000 block of Ironwood Boulevard in Moreno Valley where he was staying, according to a statement from the Riverside County Sheriff's Department.

Online records show he was being held at the Robert Presley Detention Center in Riverside in lieu of $500,000 bail.

The robbery occurred at 9:20 a.m. on Dec. 21 at the Altura Credit Union in the 12100 block of Day Street in Moreno Valley, just east of the junction of the 60 and 215 freeways, said Riverside County sheriff's Sgt. Nathan Kaas.

Three masked gunmen entered the business and went to a secured area where they demanded money and fled with an undisclosed amount of cash, Kaas said.

A sheriff's deputy monitored radio signals from a tracking device planted in the cash and directed a sheriff's helicopter crew Advertisement

[ Pala Mesa Resort ] to the robbers' vehicle, which headed across northern Orange County and into Los Angeles, he

said. California Highway Patrol officers stopped traffic on the northbound 110 Freeway at 81st Street, Kaas said.

CHP officers and sheriff's deputies methodically approached the stopped vehicles in a search for the source of the radio signal. Some of the officers had their weapons drawn.

When the suspects' vehicle was found, it had items that linked the suspects to the robbery, Kaas said. Traffic was re-opened a short time later, as officers peered into each car at an impromptu inspection station in the freeway lanes.

No one was hurt during the hold-up, chase or arrests, but the northbound Harbor Freeway was jammed as gun-toting police officers approached the getaway car in dense stopped traffic and arrested the three men. Cars were then inspected at a roadblock by officers on the freeway in a dramatic end to the 70-mile getaway attempt.

The three suspects initially arrested in the car were identified as Eric Tyron Hooker, 22, of La Puente; Justin Rashad Joseph, 19, of Los Angeles; and Merrit Myles, 20, of Los Angeles, according to the sheriff's department.