Juvenile robs and flees with gun, drugs

On Monday, March 15, 2021, at about 9:05 p.m., our 24-hour dispatch center received a call from a man in his fifties reporting that had just been accosted by two men, one of whom had threatened to shoot him and the dog he was walking on the path separating the Charleston Shopping Center in the 3900 block of Middlefield Road from the Cubberley Community Center athletic fields. The victim did not report seeing a gun.

Officers responded to the area immediately and located two additional victims (an adult in his teens, and a juvenile male) in the parking lot behind the Cubberley Community Center who reported they had just been robbed by the same two men. One of the suspects demanded the wallets of both victims and threatened to pull out a gun and hurt them if they did not comply. Neither victim reported seeing a gun.

The older victim did not have a wallet. One of the suspects reached into the younger victim’s pocket and forcibly removed his wallet and a portable battery charger. When that suspect saw the wallet had no money in it, he dropped the wallet. Both suspects then fled on foot northbound through the Charleston Shopping Center parking lot.

Officers canvassed the area for the suspects and located them hiding along the southern fence line of Mitchell Park. When they saw police, they both ran northbound into the fields at Mitchell Park. Officers were able to safely detain one suspect after a short chase; the other suspect eluded capture despite an extensive area search.

While searching the suspect, a 16-year-old juvenile male resident of San Mateo, officers found a loaded 9mm handgun in the pouch of his sweatshirt. The weapon was not registered. In the suspect’s backpack, officers located narcotics (including marijuana packaged for sale, LSD, and psilocybin-infused edibles), a spare loaded magazine for the handgun, and an unsheathed, fixed-blade knife with a blade length of six inches. Officers did not locate the battery charger stolen in the robbery.

Police arrested him for several felony and misdemeanor charges (including possession of a concealed, loaded firearm that was unregistered, possession of marijuana for sales, possession of psilocybin and LSD, possession of a concealed dirk/dagger, and resisting arrest, for fleeing when contacted by police).

An additional charge of conspiracy (a felony) is being recommended, due to his involvement in both the threats case and the robbery. Officers transported the suspect to the Santa Clara County Juvenile Hall. In accordance with our standard release of information procedures, no additional information on the suspect is available since he is under the age of 18. We do not release booking photographs of juveniles in such situations.

The suspect who escaped is believed, based on the statements of the victims, to be the one who committed the actual robbery and who made the criminal threats. Detectives are actively investigating the case in an effort to identify and arrest this outstanding suspect. He is described as an unknown race male between the ages of 16 and 22, tall and slender, with light-colored hair. He was wearing dark-colored clothing and a blue surgical-style face covering.