A man arrested in connection with the armed robbery of a Pacific Grove grocery shopper Friday is a former Nuestra Familia gang member who has been a target of slaying attempts by the gang since 1997.
At 7 p.m. Friday, a 37-year-old woman was loading groceries into her car in the parking lot of the Safeway store on Forest Avenue in Pacific Grove. The woman felt someone tugging at her purse from behind, officers said, and she turned to face a man in a black ski mask pointing a revolver at her.
The man took the woman’s purse and jumped into a car driven by a woman, police said. The car sped off on the Holman Highway before officers arrived. But a witness described the car and a partial license number to police, said Cmdr. Darius Engles.