Police make arrests in recent East Bay mall robberies

CONCORD — Seven people suspected to have been involved in a pair of robberies at the Sunvalley Shopping Center last month have been arrested, police said.

One of the robberies happened about 1:25 p.m. on June 28 at a jewelry kiosk inside the mall. The other robbery happened June 23 about 3:10 p.m. inside the women’s department of a clothings store.

In a statement, Concord police said all five of the suspects in the latter robbery were adults. All five of the suspects have residences in San Francisco, accoring to police, and the San Francisco Police Department helped corral them in Richmond. The oldest suspect, a 29-year-old, also resides in Daly City.

Of the other four suspects, one is 21 years old, the other is 20, and two are 18.

Police said officers called to the mall about 1:25 p.m. learned that four people smashed display cases at the jewelery kiosk and also pepper-sprayed a customer while doing so. Officers recovered stolen jewelry from the business, and police said they also found multiple guns during the investigation.

Police said officers they were able to identify and locate all five of the suspects quickly thanks to a partnership with San Francisco police.

“Continued collaboration and real-time intelligence sharing between agencies remain critical in investigating and disrupting organized retail crime throughout the Bay Area,” Concord police said in their statement.

In the June 23 robbery, police said both of the suspects were males and wore masks. Police said they approached a person and grabbed more than one necklace off the person’s neck. That led to a fight that ended with the two suspects running from the store, police said.

The victim suffered injuries that police said were minor.

Police said the two robberies were not related to one another.