The robbery suspects arrested in West Seattle last Friday are now both charged. 18-year-old Omar Upham is charged with one count of first-degree robbery; the 17-year-old, whose name we are not publishing because he is being prosecuted (so far) as a juvenile, is charged with two counts of first-degree robbery and two counts of second-degree assault. Both are charged with robbery in the December 1st holdup at the Lucky 5 gas station/mini-mart at 35th/Henderson; the juvenile defendant is also charged with assault in that crime as well as robbery and assault in a shoplift turned violent at Roxbury Safeway on November 29th.
Upham remains jailed in lieu of $500,000 bail. His charging documents also note that he had gotten out of juvenile detention three months ago and that his juvenile record includes robbery and assault. The police-written probable-cause narrative says that when he was arrested at Southwest Athletic Complex last Friday and taken downtown for questioning, he was wearing the same gray sweatsuit shown in security video of the Lucky 5 holdup. He had a gun in one pocket and was also found to be in possession of the same types of cigarettes and cigars stolen from the mini-mart.
The 17-year-old also remains in custody, according to the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office. His charging documents say he was the robber who jumped the counter at Lucky 5 and started punching and kicking the man on duty, as well as ripping off his gold necklace. After SWAT officers arrested him at his family’s residence in High Point on Friday afternoon, the documents say, a loaded gun was found in a bedroom there, with its serial number scratched off. Police say he claimed he was drunk when he and three others held up the Lucky 5, and that he confessed to six other crimes, including the White Center and Burien phone-store robberies, the Junction alley holdup, a package theft (no date/time listed), a downtown business robbery in September, and the Roxbury Safeway shoplift-turned-robbery.
In the latter incident, investigators allege that he and an accomplice tried to leave the store without paying for food and a beverage that one security officer thought was liquor (but was actually water). When two security officers tried to stop them, the documents say, the 17-year-old pulled a gun on them, after his accomplice beat one officer. He will be arraigned in juvenile court tomorrow; Upham will be arraigned on December 23rd. As for the other cases and other possible suspects, the investigation continues.
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