Two Long Beach residents were arrested Friday, March 15 after police chased them down after they were spotted breaking into a store in the shopping district on Montana Avenue.
At 4:51 am patrolling officers of the Santa Monica Police Department received a radio report informing them that a commercial burglary had just occurred in the area of 12th Street and Montana Avenue.
Apparently, the person who had called 911 had seen three suspects run out of a store at the location and flee southbound on 12th Street before turning westbound on Idaho Avenue.
He added that they were driving in a dark colored Ford Mustang.
Another officer in the area caught sight of the fleeing vehicle and a car chase ensued until the suspects ditched their car at the junction of Seventh Street and Michigan Avenue.
The suspects then started running in a westerly direction through area apartment buildings in order to evade the police.
At that time extra officers arrived at the scene along with a K9 Unit, and a perimeter was established.
The K9 Unit began to close the net on the suspects, and it didn’t take long for the K9 Unit to locate two of these men within the containment area.
These two people, one aged 33, and a resident of Long Beach, and the other aged 23, also of Long Beach were arrested and charges of commercial burglary, resisting arrest, conspiracy, and parole violation were leveled against them.
The 33-year-old was granted bail in the amount of $50,000, while the 23-year-old was denied bail.
The third man escaped the dragnet and at this time is still at large.
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.
