L.A. Gang Flew to Washington State for Heist, Police Say

A daring daytime jewelry heist in Bellevue, Wash., is being attributed to a group of Los Angeles street gang members, who apparently flew to Washington to commit the crime, then returned here with up to $300,000 worth of diamonds and jewels, police in Washington said Saturday.

The Thursday robbery at the Black Starr and Frost jewelry store may be part of a series of similar robberies committed by young gang members, organized by adult ring leaders who mastermind the crimes, then split the proceeds with the youths, police said.

“There seems to be a loose organization behind it,” Bellevue Detective Marv Skeen told the Associated Press. “. . . How large this group is, I don’t know.”

One of the youths was arrested at the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport Thursday as he prepared to board a plane for Los Angeles. The other three suspects escaped and are being sought here by police.

Skeen told The Times that four youths entered a jewelry store in a Bellevue shopping mall on Thursday evening; one brandished a gun and ordered a customer and the assistant manager to lie on the floor.

The youths smashed several display cases with hammers and fled with diamonds, rings and chains estimated by police to be worth as much as $300,000. No one was hurt in the robbery, police said.

The robbers apparently escaped in a rented station wagon, which was discovered parked in a nearby underground parking garage. A rented van also believed used in the group’s getaway was found abandoned at the airport, about 20 miles from Bellevue.

The arrested youth--a 15-year-old from South-Central Los Angeles--is being held in King County Juvenile Hall, pending the filing this week of armed robbery charges, Skeen said. Police believe that he belongs to a Los Angeles street gang.

Bellevue police have provided Los Angeles police with descriptions of the three other youths--thought to range in age from 12 to 18--and hope to show mug shots of Los Angeles gang members to witnesses later this week.

Skeen said groups of teen-age thieves pulled similar robberies this summer at jewelry stores in shopping malls in northern California and in Tacoma, Wash.

Although the same youths may not have been involved in those robberies, the tactics used in all three are similar enough to lead to speculation by police that an adult ringleader may be planning the crimes and enlisting street-wise youths to commit them.

“What it might be is . . . you’ve got an adult who’s trying to build his own robbery ring,” said Los Angeles Police Sgt. Bob Jackson of the Gang Activities Unit. “It sounds too sophisticated to be put together by kids.”

‘Not a New Idea’

Jackson said he is unfamiliar with the Bellevue robbery, but his unit has investigated several cases where teen-agers committed crimes on behalf of adults. “It’s not a new idea,” he said.

Adults often enlist youngsters to commit robberies because the penalties for robbery by juveniles are less severe than those for adults, he said.

Bellevue’s Skeen speculated that the ring picks targets outside Los Angeles because, by flying quickly in and out of the cities in which they commit the robberies, the youngsters make it more difficult for police to track and capture them.