Two former Colorado State University-Pueblo students, who police say have ties to gangs in Aurora and Colorado Springs, are suspected in the robbery of a Pueblo Wal-Mart during which a 66-year-old clerk was severely beaten.
The suspects — identified as Omar Griffin-Belhac, 21, of Colorado Springs and Rashad Wilson, 22, of Fountain — are accused of beating the clerk at about 2:34 a.m. Tuesday in the store’s electronics department.
According to Pueblo Sgt. Eric Bravo, the men asked the clerk to show them iPods. When he bent over the case to open it, the men proceeded to pummel him, breaking both eye sockets, his nose, his jaw and causing multiple fractures to other facial bones.
In an interview with Pueblo detectives Thursday, Griffin-Belhac gave a full confession and also admitted that nine iPods had been stolen, said Bravo.
“It was an unprovoked attack,” said the sergeant.
Bravo said the victim is a volunteer chaplain for the Colorado Department of Corrections. The victim worked the late shift at the 24-hour Wal-Mart so he could do his volunteer prison ministry during the day.
The sergeant said that both Griffin-Belhac and Wilson came to CSU-Pueblo in hopes of making the football team but were kicked off campus because of disciplinary actions.
Griffin-Belhac, who was arrested Wednesday in Colorado Springs, is being held at the El Paso County jail in lieu of $250,000 bail on a charge of robbing an at-risk adult.
Police are still looking for Wilson and the alleged driver of the getaway car, Akeem Ali Thomas, 24. Thomas is Griffin-Belhac’s cousin.
The store clerk remains hospitalized in serious condition.
Anyone with information about the whereabouts of Wilson and Thomas are asked to contact the Pueblo Police Department at 719-553-2498.
Howard Pankratz: 303-954-1939 or hpankratz@denverpost.com
