This story started way back on Oct. 24, 2011 when officers of the Santa Monica Police Department responded to the 2300 block of 14th Street in order to investigate a report of a strong-arm robbery.
When the officers arrived at the scene, they spoke with the victim, a woman, who told them that she had been walking on the east side of the 2300 block of 14th Street when a man had run up behind her and grabbed her purse.
This man had then tried to pull it away and during her attempts to hold on to the purse the victim had been thrown down onto the ground. The man had let go of the purse when passers-by had come to the woman’s assistance, and he had then run away.
The officers conducted a search of the area at that time, but they could not find the suspect. The officers retained the woman’s purse for evidence, and took it away for forensics to obtain some evidence from it.
The experts at forensics took a number of DNA swabs from the purse and these were sent to the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Crime Lab for processing. The DNA analysis gave the officers a “hit” and in late January 2012 a suspect was identified.
A warrant for this man was issued and on Feb. 6, 2012 the suspect, a 20-year-old Los Angeles resident, was found and arrested. This man was charged with attempted robbery and his bail was set at $50,000.
Editor’s Note: These reports are part of a regular police coverage series entitled “Alert Police Blotter” (APB), which injects some minor editorial into certain police activities in Santa Monica. Not all of the Mirror’s coverage of incidents involving police are portrayed in this manner. More serious crimes and police-related activities are regularly reported without editorial in the pages of the Santa Monica Mirror and its website, smmirror.com.
