Backround: On January 4th at 4:00 p.m. the 42-year-old female victim was walking near 1st Avenue and Union Street downtown when she was confronted by a male suspect who attempted to steal her purse. The suspect was initially unable to pull the purse away from the victim who had it strapped around her wrist. The suspect grabbed the purse a second time, pulling on it with much greater force. The purse strap broke and the suspect ran off on foot with the victim’s purse. The victim chased the suspect and screamed for help.
Two unknown witnesses chased after the suspect and caught him. The purse was returned to the victim. Responding officers located the victim however, upon their arrival both the suspect and the witnesses had left the area and remained at large. The victim was not injured.
Robbery detectives assigned to the case obtained video images of the suspect running away from the scene. Detectives distributed a police bulletin depicting the suspect from the video and a description of the incident.
On January 11th at approximately 4:30 p.m. alert downtown bicycle officers spotted a subject at 3rd Avenue and Pine Street bearing a striking resemblance to the robbery suspect (among other things, the subject was wearing the same red jacket as the man in the video). The officers took the 18-year-old male suspect into custody and transported him to the Robbery Office.
Robbery detectives interviewed the suspect and subsequently booked him into the King County Jail for Investigation of Robbery.