Police make arrest in brutal store beating

MIAMI (WSVN) -- Police have arrested a man in the brutal beating of a store clerk over the weekend.

Early Thursday morning, City of Miami Police confirmed they had arrested 50-year-old Rodobaldo Sanchez for beating 44-year-old Yue Kui Cen with a hammer before stealing two cartons of cigarettes from Cen's mini mart, Sunday afternoon.

Miami Police stopped Sanchez as he rode his bicycle along Southwest Eighth Street, near 34th Avenue, in the City of Miami, at about 3:30 p.m. Wednesday. They put him in handcuffs and brought him to Miami Police Headquarters for questioning. He was booked into the Miami-Dade County Jail, early Thursday morning.

Investigators had spent several days searching for the man who made off with only some cigarettes after squirting some liquid in the face of a store clerk before beating him with a hammer. That clerk currently remains hospitalized. Police found a squirt bottle, a long metal object and several packages of cigarettes in a knapsack Sanchez had on him during his arrest.

Cen's horrific beating was caught on tape at Alex's Mini-Market on Southwest 12th Avenue in Miami. The video shows the attacker as he brought two gallons of milk to the front counter. As Cen began to bag the items, the suspect pulled out a squirt bottle and doused the clerk with an unknown liquid. As the victim tried to rub his eyes, the video showed the attacker walking behind the counter with a hammer, which he used to repeatedly strike the victim, leaving the clerk unconscious.

Cen remains at Jackson Memorial Hospital, on life support and in a coma. His family issued a plea Monday afternoon for help in finding the suspect responsible for brutally beating their loved one. "I have two kids, 11 and 7, and he came in, and he sprayed my husband's eyes, and then, he had a hammer and beat him in the head several times," said the victim's wife, Phoung Cen. "He looked like he wanted to get his life. It's not a robbery. I don't know what happened. It's crazy. I need the public's help to find this guy."

Cen and his wife have been running their business for the past six years. "He's a very good man," Phoung Cen said of her husband. "In the neighborhood, everybody knows us. They love us."

On Thursday, Miami Police Chief Manuel Orosa talked about how officers from his department captured Sanchez. "When we first got the [finger]print, I was thinking, Well, he's going to come back with the excuse of, 'Oh yeah, I was in the store before, and somehow, I might have touched the [milk jug.]' But when I found out that he had all those items, I said, 'Yeah, that's our guy,'" said Orosa.

The newly-appointed police chief said he cannot understand why someone would commit such a heinous act. "You really can't ever determine what's in somebody's brain," Orosa said. "We just know that he's a very callous, cold individual of no remorse."

According to Orosa, the family has some comfort in knowing that the suspect is off the streets, but their loved one is still recovering from the injuries he sustained in the incident. "The family could basically know that this guy is going to go to jail and hopefully not do this ever again, but still, the husband is in the hospital. He's doing a little bit better, but it's an overall tragic incident right before the holidays. It's unbearable for the family," he said.

Sanchez now faces charges of attempted first degree murder, armed robbery and burglary with assault.

The police chief said Sanchez may be connected to another beating which occurred last month, about a mile away from Alex's Mini-Market. In that beating, a woman was attacked over a loaf of bread.

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