Attempted La Riviera Pizza Robbery Leads to Fight, Arrest

A 31-year-old man was arrested Tuesday after authorities say he tried to rob a La Riviera Drive pizza restaurant at knifepoint.

Jason Tavis Browning allegedly entered La Riviera Family Pizza around 9 p.m. Tuesday, pulled out a knife and demanded money from the owner. The owner refused and the two fought, Sacramento County Sheriff's Department spokesman Dep. Jason Ramos said.

"The owner said he wasn’t giving him any money, and ... according to a witness, the suspect slapped the owner in the head and face area and then took off out of the store," Ramos said in a phone interview. "The owner ran after him, and as the owner’s running after him [the suspect is] saying, 'He cut me, he cut me.' "

Ramos said the suspect escaped, but a couple hours later the department received a report of a suspicious person at a nearby apartment complex. The suspicious person was seen "running through the apartments and his hands were cut," Ramos said.

"The officers who were working had known about the earlier robbery and thought this guy might be related to it," he said.

The officers brought the pizza shop owner to the apartment complex, and he identified the suspicious person as the same man, Ramos said.

Browning is currently being held at the Sacramento County Main Jail on one felony charge of attempted robbery, one felony charge of assault with a deadly weapon and one count of parole violation. He is ineligible for bail and is next due in court Friday afternoon.