Kitsap County police have a cat-and-mouse chase with armed robbery suspects. The group, including at least one teenager, hit four convenience stores in one night according to investigators. Three of the four thefts occurred within minutes of each other.
The first occurred at the C&C Super Save in unincorporated Bremerton just after 7.22pm on Tuesday evening. Kitsap County deputies answered that call. The store clerk, who was behind the cash register at the time, said the suspects spent perhaps a minute inside the store. They pointed a gun at her during this time.
“For a moment it didn’t seem real. As soon as he said b**** open the cash register before I blow your brains out,” said Annie Vega, the employee who snuck in. robbed.”[I] tried to stay calm. Give him the money. Then he yelled at me because I didn’t have big bills,” Annie added.
Police said the group then headed about a mile and a half to Rob’s Quick Stop. This store is only a seven-minute drive from the first store that was robbed. This employee had a gun pointed at him as well. This store was the first to touch the city limits of Bremerton. As the Bremerton Police Department and Kitsap County Sheriff’s Office investigated the first two robberies, police received a third call.
“A robbery broke out in East Bremerton, now at the Sheridan minimart. Again, it’s almost a direct route based on timing. We had descriptions of similar suspects, the vehicle and basically the MO of how the robberies took place,” said Bremerton PD Cpl. Derek Ejde.
The first three heists all took place between 7:20 p.m. and 7:45 p.m. Tuesday. Hours later, at around 10:30 p.m., police said the group had reached the last store, a 76 petrol station on Old Frontier Road. This clerk was injured but they had minor injuries. About an hour later, a Kitsap deputy saw a Jeep that matched what security cameras had seen drive into the suspects.
“Two occupants fled. The driver was in the store. This driver drove away from this scene and then two occupants were contacted in the vehicle,” Cap. Ejdé said.
Police believe only one of the teenagers in the car was involved in the robberies, the other may have driven away. The two teenagers fled the vehicle, they are still at large. Bremerton PD also said he could only confirm that one of those two was also a suspect. Police arrested the driver, a 32-year-old woman in the neighborhood behind 7-11. Investigators used K-9s and WSP Air Patrol to make the arrest.
Annie Vega said she’s still figuring out what happened.
“I am grateful that we are all alive. Knowing that I wasn’t the only one doesn’t help matters. It makes it worse, I’m sorry anyone else had to go through what I went through,” she said.
Police are still looking for the two teenagers who fled the car on Tuesday evening. The Bremerton PD could only confirm one is a suspect at this time. Bremerton PD also said it was working with other agencies to see if this group was behind similar crimes in other jurisdictions.