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Mountain View police have three suspects in custody following a spree of armed robberies of 7-Elevens in the city over the past month, including the latest one Saturday night on Rengstorff Avenue.
However, police say they do not believe the three men are connected with other recent armed robberies in Mountain View at Kragen Auto Parts, Cigarette Express and a check-cashing business.
According to police spokesperson Liz Wylie, investigators worked overnight and into the next day following an armed robbery at the 7-Eleven at 615 S. Rengstorff Ave., which occurred Saturday, Jan. 30 at about 10:45 p.m.
In that incident, two male suspects entered the 7-Eleven, demanding money from the cash register as well as the cell phones and wallets of two customers, according to police reports. The men had one small handgun, and were described as black male adults wearing dark clothing and with their faces covered.
Wylie said a Mountain View officer responding to the robbery located a vehicle with three suspects inside entering Highway 101 from San Antonio Avenue that was of interest.
“It was already a wanted vehicle in regards to a San Mateo robbery,” she said, adding that the San Mateo robbery, which occurred Friday, Jan. 29, was similar to the recent crimes in Mountain View.
Wylie said the lone officer followed the vehicle into East Palo Alto while waiting for backup to assist in a car stop. She said the car pulled into a Shell gas station on University Avenue.
“They started to get out to get gas,” she said. The officer then “ordered them to stay in the car, which they did until all the other vehicles started arriving.” At that point, however, the suspects got back in the car and drove off, Wylie said.
After a short vehicle pursuit, the car crashed near Ikea, and all three suspects fled on foot. Derreck Stamper, 20, of Newark, was quickly apprehended by a police dog which had been traveling with the original officer. Wylie said police recovered the stolen wallets and cell phones from the 7-Eleven in the crashed vehicle.
Despite a lengthy search — involving officers from East Palo Alto, Palo Alto, Sunnyvale and San Mateo as well as the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Department and police helicopters from San Jose — the two remaining suspects were not found that night.
Wylie said detectives worked overnight with evidence from the car crash. Although the vehicle wasn’t stolen, police were able to use its registration information to develop a lead on a second suspect, Sean Thomas, 19, of Hayward.
Thomas was spotted by Mountain View authorities Sunday morning in Menlo Park, entering a vehicle with three other people. According to Wylie, police followed the vehicle into Mountain View, where they made a car stop at the intersection of North Shoreline Boulevard and Terra Bella Avenue. Thomas was arrested without incident.
Wylie said evidence linking Thomas to the 7-Eleven robbery was recovered from the vehicle, though she could not specify what.
“Then the driver of the vehicle, this random guy who has nothing to with the robbery, happened to have a bunch of cocaine and marijuana packaged for sale,” she said. Jesse Housley, 56, of San Francisco, was arrested for three drug-related charges, though neither he nor his vehicle was tied to the 7-Eleven robbery.
It was clear that the other two passengers in the car were not related to the robbery, Wylie said, and they were released.
A final lead
“The investigation continues into the day” on Sunday, Wylie said, “and we now have enough evidence to identify the third suspect.” Wylie said she could not specify what type of evidence.
The third suspect, Jamarea Campbell, a 19-year-old resident of Menlo Park, was already on probation in San Mateo County, and was doing community service in San Mateo when he was arrested by local police Sunday afternoon, Wylie said, adding that his probation was set to expire Monday morning at midnight.
With that, police believe they now have in custody the other two suspects who escaped after the car chase Saturday night. All three were booked into the main jail on three counts of robbery, one for each person robbed Saturday. Wylie said Mountain View police have evidence connecting the suspects to two other armed robberies at local 7-Eleven stores, one on Jan. 21 and one on Jan. 26. She added that two small handguns were recovered during the investigation.
She also said that police in Sunnyvale, Belmont and San Mateo have cases they believe are connected with the suspects, and that they, along with the MVPD, will be presenting evidence which could lead to more charges.
As for the remaining unsolved armed robbery cases, Wylie would say only that police are “still working on leads.”
Rock on guys, great group effort to rid our streets of the bad guys.
Good Job, MVPD !!!
Great work by the MV police!
Great Job, WELL DONE MVPD!!!
Excellent work by the MVPD! Keep it up.
It’s great work police like this that reflects so well on all the sterling efforts behind the scenes that our own MVPD puts into solving every case that comes across their desk. With such fine folk as these working to keep us safe, we can all rest easy. I can’t praise you enough!
Sorry, that was “police work”, not “work police.”
MVPD got these guys and their drug dealer too!
Don’t mess with MVPD. THEY ARE GOOD.
Great work – MVPD Thank you
Great work MVPD!!! Woot!
Hey great work MVPD—good work indeed. Now these three idiots will be behind bars for a long time—hopefully so!!! Now they were deceived for sure…
As always, great work by the MVPD.
This had more to do with the victims giving an accurate description of the thugs and a some credit to the police officer for not being timid about potentialy “profiling”
please remember the other robberies are unrelated so this is just a small accomplishment.
Glad to hear of this arrest. Great work. I am glad this city has been able to keep good quality officers. With all the other articles in the Voice about the budget I hope our city officials see how important these men and women are to our community.
The marijuana in the car was no doubt for use by patients who don’t have a dispensary in Mountain View.
I think they were more concerned with the armed robbery and packaged cocaine. Not even sure it would make the news without those things but you’re obviously free to judge.
BAD BOYS BAD BOYS WHATCHA GONNA DO WATCHA GONNA DO? GOOD JOB MVPD!!!!!
Cynic:
“…some credit to the police” and “…small accomplishment”?
Your username says it all. Unbelievable.
wow i no all these guys ! i seen the high speed chase & new who car it was wen i seen it crashed…
they were very stupid for what they did !!! WOW !!!!!!!!
Thanks,
You are an absolute GENIUS about the cynicism (hence the name) behind the post. You are so BRIGHT!!!
The police were handed this arrest, then all you bandwagoners thank them for doing their job.
Cynicism is necessary so fools like you do not get to comfortable and think the police are going to catch criminals all the time.
Thanks
Genius,
You get riled up easily, don’t you? And towards a fairly innocuous comment.
I got the idea behind your username, it doesn’t take a bright person. Context. Try it.
You have no idea how much work went into the investigation. No one said directly, nor did anyone imply that the police would catch every criminal. It would be foolish to believe anyone would think that from a single case.
I imagine every “bandwagoner” here is a fool and you are the genius.
Conviction and sentencing is what counts. Let’s hope this isn’t a catch and release situation.
the police you guys get off their nuts damit..they suck look at the crime out here mad resident
Big thanks to MV Police, and it sends a strong message to those who think they can elude prosecution. MV community should do every effort to report suspicious characters. We all should contribute and help police to dump this trash back into the sewer.