According to officials, a California jewelry store owner prevented a smash-and-grab robbery last week with a quick display of a firearm. The five suspects involved are believed to have pulled off a string of other similar robberies in the same area.
Four suspects barged into the Uptown Jewelry Mart armed with bear spray last Thursday afternoon, but the owner was armed with a more serious weapon. While the four fled into a getaway car driven by a fifth suspect after the owner threatened to shoot, police later received a tip, leading to four arrests about a day later.
The suspects involved in the attempted robbery were gang affiliates, said the police. The suspects have been identified as 30-year-old Jahaad Crawford, 30-year-old Gerald Kay, 29-year-old Dalon La Flora and 36-year-old Jonathan Williamson.
“The Upland P.D. initiated an investigation to identify and apprehend the suspects,” reported the Fontana Herald News. “While doing so, they were contacted by detectives from the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department’s Chino Hills Station, who provided invaluable suspect information.”
“Through the Sheriff’s Department investigation, they had reason to believe these suspects were also responsible for other recent violent robberies in Claremont and Chino Hills,” they said. “Upland police also learned that most of the suspects involved in the robbery were associated with a local criminal street gang.”
“Five thugs tried to rob a jewelry store near 300 S. Mountain Ave.,” said Upland Police Chief Darren Goodman in a tweet. “Their attack was thwarted by the business owner who brandished a gun. [They] ran out of the business to a waiting car.”
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Goodman thanked the Upland Police Department and the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Office for assisting in the investigation and arrests.
None of the jewelry store customers or staff were seriously hurt in the attack, and police are still on the lookout for the fifth suspect.