Court docs: 15-year-old arrested in connection to downtown armed robberies, assault at South Hill Rite Aid

Two armed robberies in downtown Spokane last week could be connected to a series of recent liquor thefts by a group of teens at a South Hill store, one of which became violent, according to a search warrant.

Spokane Police Department’s SWAT team and violent crimes task force arrested a 15-year-old boy on suspicion of first-degree robbery and first-degree assault on Dec. 8, a release from the department said.

The teen, whom The Spokesman-Review has not identified because of his age, is suspected to be one of several other teens who stole from a Rite Aid, located at 810 E. 29th Ave., and assaulted one of its pharmacists on the afternoon of Dec. 4, the search warrant document said.

One supervisor at the Rite Aid told authorities that a group of six to eight juveniles comes into the store and steals bottles of alcohol every four to five days while wearing backpacks, black coats with hoods, and face or ski masks.

A pharmacist who was working on Dec. 4 yelled at a group of juveniles to leave after they walked down the liquor aisle, the search warrant document said. Two of the juveniles began to throw bottles of liquor at the pharmacist, shattering the glass and spilling the liquid on the floor, the document said. Another bottle of alcohol was thrown at the pharmacist but he slipped on the spilled liquid and didn’t get hit, the document said.

Downtown robberies

The search warrant document also shed light on the two robberies downtown on Wednesday both of which occurred within about an hour of each other.

According to the document, a man, who was walking through Riverfront Park and wearing headphones, was approached by a group of four male teenagers wearing ski masks and hoodies. One of the them pointed a handgun at the victim and told him to remove his headphones while the other three surrounded him.

The teen holding the handgun demanded the man empty his pockets and give them his wallet and phone and that if he did not do what he said he would kill him, the document said. The man was told to unlock his cellphone and to provide the passcode numbers for his bank cards, but he was too in shock to provide the latter, the document said.

The group of teens left the park southbound while their victim remained in the area and contacted police after asking to use somebody’s phone.

The man’s phone was reportedly on the 1800 block of Ninth Avenue later that night after he reported it stolen with his cellphone provider. He later received an email that said the password and tracking device on his cellphone were disabled.

The second robbery, about a half an hour later, occurred when two males approached a man on Main Avenue near River Park Square and pulled out a box cutter, the search warrant document said.

The two demanded the man give them everything in his pockets as well as the to-go food he was carrying. After handing over his belongings, one of the males slashed the man with a box cutter on the forehead.

One witness told authorities the two fled west and grouped up with other younger males near the downtown library.

The juvenile suspect arrested last week is said to be involved in all three incidents. Police located the 15-year-old suspect at his home at the address on Ninth Avenue to which the cellphone robbed from the victim in Riverfront Park earlier was tracked, based on runaway calls from his parents.

Police are still investigating.

Q

uinn Welsch can be reached at (509) 459-5469 or by email at quinnw@spokesman.com.