A Lynnwood man police believe robbed 10 or more convenience stores around Snohomish County, including stores in Lynnwood and Mountlake Terrace, faces armed robbery charges and was in custody Tuesday, Jan. 27 after his arrest last week by a county sheriff’s deputy.
His arrest was one of three involving suspects involved in recent Lynnwood and Mountlake Terrace robberies, including the Jan. 25 armed robbery of a downtown Mountlake Terrace gas station that led to the apprehension of two men following a high-speed freeway chase.
Police arrested the 22-year-old suspect in the convenience store robberies Jan. 17 after a Bothell 7-Eleven store clerk was able to scare him away during an armed robbery just before noon, according to a police affadavit.
During questioning following his arrest, the suspect admitted to a series of armed robberies within the past five weeks, including a Dec. 30 robbery shortly before 5 p.m. at Best Market, 2328 196th St. SW in Lynnwood; five Mountlake Terrace robberies, including two at Goodies Food, 4804 212th St; two robberies at the 44th Avenue Market, 21210 44th Ave.W; and one at the E-Z Corner Mart, 24325 56th Ave.W, police said.
He denied robbing the Mr. Kleen gas station, 19907 44th Ave. W in Lynnwood, where a clerk was held up Dec. 23, the report said. The clerk told officers a man she described as wearing dark clothing and a mask displayed a small handgun and said “give me the money,” according to the report.
The suspect allegedly used to work at the gas station and had once been arrested for taking money from the cash register there, a police report said.
In the latest robbery, a man with a pistol robbed a clerk at Shell station at the intersection of 66th Ave. W and 220th St. SW in Mountlake Terrace.at 1:25 a.m. Jan. 25, Mountlake Terrace Police chief Greg Wilson said.
Police connected a description of the suspect’s vehicle with an earlier robbery incident in Shoreline and spotted the silver Jeep parked at a Shell gas station along Ballinger Way in Shoreline, just south of Mountlake Terrace.
The driver sped off, heading north along I-5 and onto southbound I-405, with Mountlake Terrace police Sgt. Scott Burkett and Lynnwood police in pursuit, police said.
The Jeep crashed into a cyclone fence and tree in Kirkland. Officers chased the driver and a passenger with help from a King County Sheriff’s Office police dog, and arrested both men: the 36-year-old driver, from Everett, and his 39-year-old passenger from Kent.
Police also found evidence from the Mountlake Terrace robberies and others inside their jeep.
Wilson said there have been a “handful” of crimes lately in Mountlake Terrace but said overall crime citywide dropped 16 percent between 2007 and 2008.
He said detectives also are following up on a series of residential burglaries in central Mountlake Terrace.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
