Warrants: Brothers, 18 and 20, charged in White Settlement armed robbery
Two brothers, who were hired to unload a moving truck Friday morning, were charged with aggravated robbery with a deadly weapon after they held a man at gunpoint and stole $150 and his cell phone, according to their warrants.
Tyler Soelz, 20, and Garrett Soelz, 18, were booked into the White Settlement Police Department Jail Wednesday afternoon. They’re expected to be transferred to the Tarrant County Jail.
The robbery occurred around 10:30 a.m. last Friday at a Days Inn located in the 8500 block of West Freeway in White Settlement.
The victim told police that he had met the Solez brothers at a gas station the previous day. The brothers approached the victim asking for money and food, telling him that they were experiencing homelessness and lived in a tent in a nearby wooded area. The victim told the brothers he didn’t have money to give them, but would need help unloading a moving truck and would pay them for their help. The pair agreed and the men exchanged numbers, according to the arrest warrant affidavit.
Later that day, the victim picked the brothers up at a nearby Mexican restaurant in Benbrook and “allowed them to help load his moving truck with the intent of having them help unload it at his storage facility.”
“[The victim] said it got to be too late in the day and he instead bought them food, allowed them to take a shower at his motel room, and then drove them back to an area in Benbrook where they said their tent was located,” the affidavit continued. “[The victim] returned to his motel room after dropping them off and went to bed.”
The following morning, the victim heard a knock on his door and allowed the Solezs inside the residence when all of a sudden, Tyler pointed a black handgun at him, then the younger brother pushed the victim onto the bed, yelling to give him the “bread,” the affidavit said.
“[The victim] understood ‘bread’ to mean to cash money,” the affidavit said. “[The victim] said they also wanted a Louis Vuitton bag, but [the victim] said he does not have a Louis Vuitton bag and did not know why they were asking for one.”
Tyler shot the firearm while yelling at the victim, according to the affidavit. Shortly after, the brothers stole a backpack and a cell phone, then fled the scene, police said. The victim was not injured in the shooting.
Upon police arrival to the hotel, they located a .45 shell casing in the bedroom, a burn mark on the bed’s box-spring and a bullet hole. Surveillance footage at the scene confirmed the story the victim told police and showed the men leaving in a tan Ford Crown Victoria, police said.
Through city surveillance video, investigating police officers were able to match the vehicle’s license plate to a car traveling in Fort Worth near South Las Vegas Trail and West Freeway Service Road, police said. The car’s registration, and the use of social media, helped identify the two suspects.
“A Facebook search was conducted on the name Garrett Soelz and a profile was found with a profile picture of a male that matched the driver’s license picture previously obtained for Garrett Soelz,” the warrant said. “This profile picture showed to have been updated on April 12, 2022 and the individual seen in the profile picture was also a match for the Individual seen on the surveillance footage obtained from Days Inn.”
Tyler Soelz was identified through Facebook photos that matched the video footage at the hotel and through a photo used on the Texas Department of Public Safety’s Sex Offender Registration database.
In partnership with the Fort Worth Police Department, officers were able to locate the brothers near Oakmont Boulevard and South Hulen Street on Wednesday and they were arrested without incident.
“This was outstanding work and collaboration with the Fort Worth Police Department while using video technology to obtain exact vehicle information to locate two violent fugitives,” said White Settlement Chief of Police Christopher Cook. “Gun violence will not be tolerated in our community and our detectives will find anyone using firearms in the furtherance of criminal activity.”
