Dallas Police have arrested two men in connection with the September robbery and murder of an armored car guard.
On Sept. 1, 52-year-old David Ruback was delivering money for GardaWorld when he was confronted by an armed man inside Big Jim's Check Cashing and fatally shot.
Four days after the shooting, Dallas Police released surveillance video showing two people pull into a parking lot in a white Chevrolet Impala and stop near Ruback's parked armored car. After Ruback went into the business, both men got out of the vehicle, and the passenger, who was armed with a long gun, ran inside the business after Ruback.
Police said the passenger shot Ruback, picked up a large bag of cash, and ran out of the business.
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Dallas Police said Wednesday that 21-year-old Genaro Rivera and 24-year-old Francisco Montez had been arrested and both charged with capital murder in connection with the robbery and murder. When Rivera was arrested, police said he was in possession of large bundles of cash that had been stamped with a date, bank and customer number indicating they were marked for delivery to the check cashing business.
In an arrest warrant affidavit obtained by NBC 5, investigators said the Impala was owned by Montez and that in April he reported a gun had been stolen from his vehicle. During that investigation, the responding officer's body camera recorded several angles of the car including the license plate and noted that it had several unique features including a sunroof, spoiler, black wheels and damage to a bumper.
A vehicle that looked like Montez's Impala, with a spoiler, sunroof, and black rims, was seen on surveillance video recorded at the shooting. Surveillance video also indicated the vehicle had been in the area before the robbery, repeatedly passing a convenience store. Police said that behavior was consistent with surveillance and planning around the arrival of the armored car.
FLOCK cameras recorded Montez's Impala outside his apartment several times parked next to a Nissan Sentra registered to Montez and a woman. Police said a car matching the Sentra's description and Montez's cell phone was across the street from the check-cashing business on Aug. 25, a week before the murder, from about 8:43 a.m. until 9:23 a.m. The driver of the Sentra left the area shortly after the Gardaworld driver completed his delivery to the check cashing business.
On the day of the murder, the driver appeared to remain outside during the robbery but is also facing a capital murder charge due to the law of parties felony murder rule which, in some circumstances, allows a person to be criminally responsible for the actions of another person.
It's not clear if either Montez or Rivera has obtained an attorney. According to jail records, Rivera's bond was listed at $2.25 million while Montez's bond was listed at $1 million.
Ruback's girlfriend, Terry Ball, told NBC 5 he was a 20-year employee of the company and hoped to retire soon. She said he'd recovered after having been shot on the job once before but that they didn't imagine it could happen again.
She told NBC 5 on Wednesday she was relieved to learn of the arrests, but said it was bittersweet.
"You worry that it’s not going to happen. You worry that they’re not going to catch somebody, so that was my concern. So there was a sigh of relief this morning that there was a suspect in custody," said Ball. "Even with their arrests, he’s still not coming home tonight and my life has changed. It changed the day that he took his last breath."
Still, Ball called the arrests a step towards justice, saying she's prepared to wait as the case moves forward.
Dallas Police ask anyone with information about the robbery or homicide to contact Detective Reginald Woods at 214-283-4955 or by email at reginald.woods@dallaspolice.gov.
