Suspect in at Least Seven Robberies Is Arrested

A man who is believed to be responsible for at least seven recent robberies was arrested Wednesday after the holdup of an East San Diego supermarket.

Kerry Hebert, 22, was arrested at 3:30 p.m. by SWAT team members who surrounded his apartment in the 4000 block of 47th Street. Hebert, apparently unaware that police were outside the apartment, was apprehended without incident when he walked out the back door, San Diego police spokesman Dave Cohen said.

Hebert is suspected of robbing the Lucky supermarket at 43rd Street and University Avenue shortly after noon Wednesday. As a description of the robber and his getaway car was being broadcast over police radios, a cab driver who happened to be monitoring a police scanner spotted the car parked in an alley behind 47th Street, Cohen said. Police were notified, and, a short time later, they apprehended three people who came out of an apartment at that location and got into the car.

The three were taken in for questioning, and they indicated the man police were looking for was still in the apartment, Cohen said. A decision was made to call in the SWAT team because the suspect was known to have been carrying a gun during the robbery, he said.

Hebert is suspected of at least seven robberies in recent weeks, most of them within a short distance of the apartment where he was arrested. He is suspected of robbing the Bank of America at 31st Street and University Avenue three times in January and February, Cohen said. On two of those occasions, the robber fired rounds from a shotgun into the bank ceiling, he said.

Hebert will be booked into County Jail downtown on suspicion of robbery, Cohen said.