Four weeks after a San Jose jewelry store was robbed in a mob-style attack that injured the 88-year-old owner, seven suspects have been arrested, police said.
“Seven people are in custody, seven suspects who brutalized an elderly man, destroyed a family business and terrorized an entire community,” San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan said in a briefing.
“This was not a crime of desperation,” he said. “This was organized theft and violence, the kind of smash-and -grab attacks we’ve seen spreading across the Bay Area and the entire state.”
On Sept. 5, a car rammed through the front door of Kim Hung Jewelry and more than 10 masked thieves stole thousands of dollars’ worth of jewelry. Surveillance video showed an assailant pushing the store’s owner to the ground.
The older man suffered a stroke and heart attack due to the stress and shock of the robbery, according to the owner’s niece.
“From the very moment these cowards fled Kim Hung Jewelry, we have not stopped,” Assistant Police Chief Brian Shab said. “We scoured the entire Bay Area, conducting surveillance, serving search warrants, and working day and night with our law enforcement partners, and today, that persistence has delivered results.”
Arrested were Angel Herrera, 21, of Pacifica; Toddisha Mayfield, 31, of San Leandro; Tom Donegan, 19, of Manteca; Jacques Samuel, 18, of San Francisco; Cisco Lutu, 18, of South San Francisco; Zakhari Blue-Gordon, 21, of East Palo Alto, and Amari Green, 21, of San Francisco, police said.
During the execution of search warrants at the residences of the suspects, detectives found a firearm, loaded magazine, multiple rounds of ammunition, and large quantities of suspected cocaine, police said.
Police said some of the suspects may be tied to other mob-style robberies of jewelry stores across the Bay Area.
“It’s not just this one robbery that we’re looking at,” Shab said. “We believe that some of the people in this group were connected to some of the other robberies.”
Mahan said law enforcement is still working to identify additional suspects, since police believe there were at least a dozen individuals involved.
“We know there are still people out there who took part in this attack,” he said. “To those still hiding, we are coming for you.”