Police here are searching for three males believed to have committed two armed robberies in Piedmont Sunday night. (See update below.)
One of them was on Sea View Avenue, where a 15-year-old boy was robbed at gunpoint about 9:20 p.m. Sunday as he walked down the street.
Lisa Settlemier said there was a knock on the door of her family’s Sea View home shortly after 9 p.m. Sunday,. At the door was a 15-year-old boy who told them he had just been walking home on Sea View, making a call on his cell phone, when three males wearing all black clothing and ski masks got out of a white sedan and ran up to the victim. Lisa’s 18-year-old son Hunter Settlemier said the victim told him one of the three brandished a handgun.
In a statement Monday afternoon, police Chief Jeremy Bowers said one of the suspects grabbed and removed the victim’s backpack, and that all three suspects went back into their car, which departed on Sea View toward Mountain Avenue.
The victim described one of the suspects who took his backpack as a black male wearing all black clothing and the other suspects as unknown race males also wearing dark clothing, Bowers said in the statement.
The robbers, Hunter Settlemier said, also made off with the 15-year-old’s lacrosse bag and cell phone. The victim was shaken up, Hunter said, but not physically harmed; Police later recovered and returned the backpack and lacrosse stick, Hunter said.
The other robbery was reported only 10 minutes before the Sea View incident. Bowers said it took place about 9:10 p.m. along Bonita Avenue near the tennis complex and City Hall. Three 14-year-olds walking there were approached from behind by three suspects, one of them carrying a handgun.
The three suspects demanded the 14-year-olds’ smartphones and backpacks, as well as cash. After taking what they could get, the suspects fled — in a white sedan — Vista Avenue toward Highland. None of the victims was injured.
The suspects were all wearing dark clothing, including hooded sweatshirts, pulled down in an attempt to conceal their faces, Bowers said. Still, the victims described their assailants as black males. The victims were not able to describe a fourth suspect, the driver of the white sedan.
Bowers said his officers have spoken to Oakland police, who said suspects with similar descriptions were seen in that city Sunday night as well.
UPDATE:
Reach Sam Richards at sam.richards4344@gmail.com