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(Update) Police Seek Suspects In String of Late-Night Robberies, Drive-By Shooting

Update 7/10: Police tracked down two of the suspected robbers–both 16-year-old males–Thursday night in the Central District.

Detectives are still searching for a third teen suspect in the case.


Originally posted 7/8:

Police are searching for a trio of robbers suspected in an string of armed hold-ups in South Seattle and a drive-by shooting in Ballard last night.

SPD detectives believe the suspects committed at least three armed robberies late Monday, first stealing a man’s cellphone at gunpoint around 10:30 PM in the 800 block of 14th Avenue South.

An hour later, at about 11:30 PM, three men reported the same group of suspects had approached them in the 1400 block of 31st Avenue South, where they pulled guns on the victims, demanded their cellphones, and fled.

The victims told police they had seen a red sedan circling them on the street several times before the robbery.

Around midnight, a man called police and said he’d been robbed minutes earlier by two suspects, who had stepped out of a red Mercedes near Lake Washington Park Drive S. and Lake Washington Boulevard and asked him for a cigarette. Again, the suspects brandished handguns, demanded the victim’s wallet, phone and backpack, and fled in a red sedan.

Officers were able to return the stolen backpack to the victim–who told police he is homeless–after finding some of his property strewn across the ground a few blocks from the scene of the robbery. However, police weren’t able to find the man’s stolen cellphone.

Police searched throughout the night for the robbers in the red sedan, and finally found it shortly after receiving a report of a drive-by shooting in Ballard. Just before 2:30 AM, residents in the 7000 block of 24th Ave. NW reported someone had fired at least one shot at their home from the backseat of a red car and sped away.

 

Officers caught up to the suspects’ sedan–a red Mercedes–a short time later in the 12200 block of Aurora. Three male suspects ran from the car, but officers were able to detain three other teens–two female, one male–inside the vehicle.

Major Crimes Taskforce detectives joined the investigation and interviewed the three teens found in the car before releasing them to their families. Detectives believe the three men who fled from police on Aurora are responsible for the string of robberies. Police are now working to find the men.