Update – Central Area Robbery Suspects Arrested

LOS ANGELES POLICE DEPARTMENT
PRESS RELEASE

Wednesday, January 20, 1999

On January 6, 1999 a robbery was committed at an electronic equipment business in the Chinatown area by two male suspects. One of the suspects approached the store manager and requested to see a portable CD player from a display case. The second suspect acted as a lookout during the incident.

When the manager turned to get the CD player, the suspect placed an unknown hard object against the manager’s back. The manager believed the suspect had a gun. When the manager turned with the CD player in his hand, the suspect grabbed the CD player and ran from the location. A security video camera located in the business taped the occurrence.

On January 8, 1999 the videotape was distributed to the news media to be shown for the purpose of identifying the suspects. Two days later, Detective Headquarters Division received a call from an anonymous male caller who stated that he had seen the video tape on television and provided the names of the two suspects.

On January 15, 1999, Central Detectives acting on the information provided by Detective Headquarters identified one of the two names from a prior contact for attempted robbery. The individual was determined to be a juvenile with gang affiliation. The parents of the juvenile were contacted and agreed to bring their son to the police station. During the interview, the juvenile admitted to committing the robbery in Chinatown. The juvenile also provided Detectives with the name of his accomplice which matched the same name provided by the anonymous caller.

On January 19, 1999, the parents brought subject-2 to Central station. Subject-2 admitted to being with Subject-1 during the robbery.

The quick arrest of the subjects involved in the January 6th Chinatown robbery is a prime example of the cooperation between the Los Angeles Police Department, the community and the media working together to fight crime.

For further inquiries, contact Media Relation Section (213) 485-3586.

For Release 8:50 am PST
January 20, 1999