5:04 PM: The three armed-robbery suspects arrested Friday night, hours after a series of holdups including two in West Seattle, appeared in court this afternoon. The King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office says a judge found probable cause for holding all three for investigation of four counts of first-degree robbery. $400,000 bail was requested and set for the two adult suspects, 21 and 19; the 11-year-old suspect (who turns 12 later this month) will remain in secure custody for now (bail is not a factor in juvenile cases).
The four robberies happened in the span of less than an hour and a half, starting at 5:25 am Friday morning on East Marginal Way, continuing on Rainier Avenue less than 15 minutes later, then on to West Seattle an hour after that one, with a holdup at Space Age (35th/Holden) followed 10 minutes later at the Shell station in The Triangle. Investigators allege they took cash and tobacco products in the robberies, and that at least one wielded a rifle. The probable-cause documents say they were tracked down an hour after the final robbery because someone flagged down police about an abandoned blue Kia (stolen from a SeaTac hotel), and had dashcam video showing an associated silver Hyundai with California plates. A law-enforcement bulletin was issued for the Hyundai, eventually chased and found near Spring/Harvard, with the three suspects then arrested. While the images in the document copies aren’t usable, investigators say they have security-camera images linking the suspects to the robberies because of the clothing they were wearing. The KCPAO says the two adult suspects are due back in court Wednesday, while the next hearing for the juvenile suspect is on Thursday.
ADDED 6:10 PM: Court records show the juvenile suspect is also being held on a warrant from a case for which he got a suspended sentence just last month. The records in that case, however, show him as 13, rather than 11, though that doesn’t make a difference in the case. It was an eerily similar robbery rampage back in July, with four robbers hitting three stores – two in Tukwila, one in Renton – in a short time span. Four juveniles were arrested – this one, and three others, ages 14 and 15. This suspect plea-bargained to reduced charges and got a suspended 15- to 36-week sentence, with credit for three months in custody. But five days after that sentencing in mid-October, he allegedly violated terms of supervision/release, and a warrant was issued to consider possibly revoking the suspension.
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