DAYTON — A man shot by an off-duty Kettering officer after being accused of robbing a store and abducting a person last year has pleaded guilty.
Enrique Perez Mendez, 25, pleaded guilty Wednesday in Montgomery County Common Pleas Court to two counts of aggravated robbery plus a misdemeanor count of aggravated menacing, according to court documents.
He could be sentenced to at least 16 years in prison in addition to a mandatory three-year fire specification on the first count for up to more than 19 years in jail.
Perez Mendez is scheduled to be sentenced on July 31.
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As News Center 7 previously reported, he entered La Tapatia, a grocery store on Burkhart Avenue in Riverside on Oct. 8, with a handgun. He allegedly proceeded to go behind the sales counter and rob the store, according to a statement of facts. He reportedly fired one shot from behind the counter.
From there, he approached a man and ordered him to give over his money and cell phone. Mendez, who remained armed, made the man drive his own vehicle to Meijer on Wilmington Pike. Police previously said that he abducted a woman, but court records indicate the victim was a man.
At the grocery store, Mendez ordered the victim to remove $5,000 from his account. He also threatened the man and his family.
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“Defendant told the victim he knew who he was and he knows where he lives and if he didn’t get the money or called police, the defendant would kill his family,” according to court records.
As News Center 7 also reported, Kettering officers were called to the Meijer on reports of an armed robbery in progress.
Shortly after that, Kettering officers chased Mendez on foot. During the chase, an off-duty Kettering officer found the suspect and was confronted by him in a backyard on Tangent Drive.
John Davis, with the Centerville Tactical Crime Suppression Unit, previously said that the officer gave Mendez commands, but was threatened with a weapon. At that time, the officer shot at and hit Mendez.
Perez Mendez suffered non-life-threatening injuries and was taken into custody.
He’s being held in the Montgomery County Jail.
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