Employee recognized suspects as ‘regular customers’
An 18-year-old man and two suspects under the age of 18 have been arrested in connection with the armed robbery of a Fruitville Road convenience store on Wednesday, Feb. 18, the Sarasota Police Department has reported.
Each of them is facing a felony charge of Armed Robbery with a Weapon, a news release says.
Christopher Elias Woo-Piner, 18, of 160 Paramount Drive in Sarasota; Roberto Gonzalez-Ramos, 16, of 1101 Signal Pointe Drive, Apt. 207, in Sarasota; and Samuel Medina-Camacho, 15, of 3525 Chesire Lane, Apt. B, in Sarasota, were taken into custody on Friday, Feb. 20, the release notes.
Woo-Piner has pleaded “Not guilty” and demanded a jury trial, The Sarasota News Leader learned from a review of 12th Judicial Circuit Court records.
In response to a News Leader inquiry, Amanda Morales, a communications specialist with the Police Department, reported that the Criminal Investigations Division had confirmed that all three suspects initially were transported to the Sarasota County Correctional Facility in downtown Sarasota. Later, she wrote in a Feb. 25 email, Gonzalez-Ramos and Medina-Camacho were transferred to the Manatee Regional Juvenile Detention Center.
About 10:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 18, a Police Department news release says, officers responded to a reported robbery at a gas station in the 3500 block of Fruitville Road. When officers arrived at the business, the employee present told them that three people had “entered the store, robbed him at gunpoint and left the store,” the release adds.
Quick Fuel of Sarasota stands at 3580 Fruitville Road, the News Leader learned from a review of a city map. It is located at the intersection of Fruitville and South Beneva roads. However, the scene of the incident is redacted in Woo-Piner’s Probable Cause Affidavit, which the News Leader reviewed in 12th Judicial Circuit Court records.
“Surveillance video shows three people entering the store,” the Police Department news release continues. One person can be seen “walking around the front counter and pointing a handgun with an extended magazine towards the victim,” it adds. The suspect then is seen “pointing the gun at the victim” as the victim removed cash from the register. At the same time,” the release notes, “the two other people are seen taking merchandise from store shelves.
“All three people ran from the store,” the release says. “A significant amount of cash and merchandise was stolen,” it adds.
“Crime is not tolerated in our city,” said Chief Rex Troche in the release. “Our officers and detectives began investigating immediately upon dispatch. In less than 48 hours, three people were identified and arrested. If you commit a crime in the City of Sarasota, we will find you and you will be arrested,” Troche stressed in the release.
“This case remains an active investigation,” the release points out. “Anyone with information is asked to call the Sarasota Police Department Criminal Investigations Division at 941-263-6070 or remain anonymous and call Crime Stoppers of Sarasota County at 941-366-TIPS (8477).”
Details from Woo-Piner’s Probable Cause Affidavit
Woo-Piner’s Probable Cause Affidavit explains that Sarasota Police Department (SPD) officers initially were dispatched after a hold-up alarm went off at the convenience store. Shortly after that, the affidavit says, “the victim called in on a borrowed phone and advised he was just robbed at gunpoint.”
The victim also reported that a woman “who possibly is an accomplice or an associate of the suspects was still on scene, attempting to leave.”
When officers arrived at the store, the affidavit notes, they detained the woman.
During an interview with the victim, the affidavit continues, officers learned that “three male subjects wearing dark-colored hooded sweatshirts, pants, and masks entered the store at approximately [10:34 p.m. on Feb. 18].” One of them, it says, “immediately produced a firearm from his waistband, went behind the counter, and pointed the gun at [the victim, who was identified as MD Bhuiyan].”
Bhuiyan told the officers that he was the only employee in the store at the time, the affidavit notes.
“The suspect with the gun snatched Bhuiyan’s cell phone from his hand and continued to point the gun at him while demanding money from the cash register,” the affidavit continues. The amount of cash taken was estimated between $1,100 and $1,200, “in various denominations,” the affidavit points out.
“The other two suspects grabbed as many vape, nicotine, and THC products from the display shelves located in the front of and on the counter as they could and dumped them into plastic trash bags,” the affidavit says. Then they left the store on foot, fleeing southbound through the rear of the property, toward the shopping plaza that to the south of the store, part of which faces Beneva Road.
Bhuiyan told the officers that the suspects “were hanging out and talking in front of the store with the [woman] just prior to the robbery,” the affidavit adds.
Further, Bhuiyan reported that he recognized the suspects “despite their masked appearances,” because they “are regulars at the convenience store,” the affidavit pointed out. All three of them and the woman were at the store the previous night, he also told the officers, the affidavit adds. “He was confident he could identify them if he saw them again,” it notes.
The 18-year-old woman was identified by officers as Stephany Mas Castellanos, the affidavit continues. Although she told the officers that she “understood some English,” she explained that she “is more comfortable speaking Spanish for an interview,” the affidavit says. Thus, an officer assisted with translation for her.
After Mas Castellanos was read her Miranda rights, the affidavit continues, she denied knowing the suspects, adding that they engaged her in conversation “after noticing the Cuban flag lanyard that her vehicle keys were on,” the affidavit says.
Mas Castellanos added that at least one of the suspects also was Cuban, “and they appeared to be hitting on her,” the affidavit continues.
She was at the store only to purchase a non-alcoholic beverage before she was scheduled to pick up a friend “at the McDonald’s across the street,” the affidavit adds. She had to return to her vehicle to get a credit card, she told the officers, so she was not present when the robbery took place, the affidavit notes.
As the interview went on, the affidavit points out, Mas Castellanos told the officers that suspect Christopher Woo-Piner is her boyfriend and that she knew Gonzalez-Ramos. When the officers asked whether she could provide them with phone numbers or photos of the two young men from social media, she “stated she could although she reiterated that they were not associated with the suspects [from the robbery],” the affidavit says.
She did pull up photos on her cellphone of both Woo-Piner and Gonzalez-Ramos, the affidavit notes.
Further, the affidavit says, the store employee, Bhuiyan, provided officers with video footage from the previous night, when the suspects were in the store, and from the period of the robbery.
In reviewing the Feb. 17 footage, the affidavit continues, offices observed Mas Castellanos and the three young men arriving at the store, as well as entering and exiting it at several times between 10:40 p.m. and 11:50 p.m.
The Feb. 18 footage shows the three suspects “walking onto the property from the West,” the affidavit adds. The video also showed Mas Castellanos approaching them and speaking with them, it says. “In the video,” the affidavit points out, “it appears as if Mas Castellanos is familiar with the suspects and appears as if she is arguing with them.”
The affidavit then describes the build and comparable heights of the suspects as the robbery is seen in the footage.
Later, during a photo line-up that the officers provided Bhuiyan, the affidavit notes, he was able to identify Woo-Piner as one of the suspects.
Prior charges for the suspects
A News Leader review of 12th Judicial Circuit Court records found that Woo-Piner was charged on various dates in 2025 with operating a motor vehicle without a valid license, careless driving, failure to display registration, lacking proof of vehicle insurance, and two counts of speeding. On Feb. 7, he was cited for unknowingly driving while his license was suspended, canceled or revoked.
The only record that the News Leader found for Medina-Camacho was a citation in September 2025 for possessing a vaping device as a minor while on the property of Booker High School.
The News Leader also learned that, in 2025, Gonzalez-Ramos was cited for having no motor vehicle registration. Then, on Jan. 12 of this year, he received a citation for operating a motorcycle without a valid license, without headlights and without “protective gear.” He had been stopped at 3:31 a.m. at the intersection of Lockwood Ridge Road and 17th Street in Sarasota, the citation noted.