Local News in Brief : 2 Arrested, 2 Sought in Jewelry Store Robbery

Police were seeking two men Saturday who remained at large after their suspected accomplices in the armed robbery of a Lancaster jewelry store were arrested.

Lawrence Frank, 28, and Richard Brown, 25, both of Los Angeles, were arrested Friday on suspicion of robbing at gunpoint a jewelry store in the 43700 block of N. 15th St. West in Lancaster, said Deputy Dan Cox of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

Witnesses said four men held up the store Friday, Cox said. After taking an undetermined amount of jewelry, the robbers fled in two vehicles--a white car and a black van, Cox said.

Shortly after the robbery, officers from the California Highway Patrol spotted the black van heading south on the Antelope Freeway near Sand Canyon Road and began pursuing it, Cox said.

The van, traveling at speeds of up to 100 m.p.h., eventually rear-ended a car and plowed into a guardrail on the eastbound Ventura Freeway near Van Nuys Boulevard, Cox said.

Two men jumped from the van and ran onto surface streets in Sherman Oaks, Cox said. Police cordoned off the area and used helicopter and canine teams to find the men.

Frank and Brown were being held at the Antelope Valley station in lieu of $50,000 bail each, Cox said.