Accomplice arrested in connection to crime spree prior to deadly SJ carjacking shootout: police

SAN JOSE, Calif. (KGO) -- There's new information about a crime spree that ended with a deadly shootout between a suspect and San Jose police.

Investigators now say the suspect had an accomplice with him days prior.

Last Wednesday, a San Jose police officer was shot in the head while responding to an armed carjacking downtown. Police shot and killed the suspect, Mohamed Husien. A week later, San Jose police announced Husein had an accomplice, Edward Macias. San Jose Public Information Representative Stacie Shig said the pair is accused of two armed robberies in San Jose on January 17 and 18.

"And it just goes to show the complicated nature that our detectives looked into," Shih said.

RELATED: San Jose carjacking suspect's crime spree started in Sacramento days before shootout, police say

One of the armed robberies happened at Countryside Liquors off McKee Road. The worker inside told us two suspects came in, one of them took out a knife, while the other went around the counter - they demanded he open the cash register, and they took about $1,500.

Saurabh was the one working during the robbery, and told ABC7 News he was surprised to hear police arrested a second suspect.

Police said the day after the pair robbed this liquor store, they went to the 7-Eleven off Coleman Avenue and did the same thing. One suspect pulled a knife, while the other demanded the worker empty cash from the registers. The worker who was here during that armed robbery didn't want to go on camera but said he's doing ok now.

South Bay resident Timothy Namkung was glad to hear the alleged accomplice was arrested.

"Especially the sort of crimes they were doing tend to be crimes of habit, I would say, I don't think they would've stopped," Namkung said.

Police said the pair were driving a stolen red Corvette during the armed robberies. Detectives credit their license plate reader system that spotted the stolen car.

"When it used to be knocking on doors, interviewing witnesses, it could take hours, days to weeks, and now we can do that in a matter of minutes by just locating suspect vehicles right away with these technologies," Shih said.

Police found the Corvette abandoned on the same day as Husein's shootout in downtown San Jose. Edward Macias was arrested the next day.