The Weekend Was Marred by Robberies : Crime: Holdup rampage by youthful gunmen was followed by the shooting of two people during La Jolla jewelry store heists.

Two teen-age suspects were arrested nighttime after a three-hour armed robbery spree in which several victims were robbed at gunpoint on streets, parking lots and at automatic teller machines, police said Sunday.

The robbery rampage on Saturday night by the young robbers was followed Sunday by simultaneous armed robberies at two La Jolla jewelry stores by up to six daring gunmen who managed to elude a police dragnet. The stores hit were J. Jessop & Sons Jewelers and C.J. Charles Jewelers, both on Prospect Street.

Although the jewelry store robberies occurred about 2 p.m., San Diego police were still trying to piece together a report of the incidents by Sunday night and were able to offer only the barest of details.

Two unidentified men believed to be customers were shot during the La Jolla robberies. One man suffered a minor grazing wound, but the other was reported in critical condition Sunday night at Scripps Memorial Hospital in La Jolla with a gunshot wound to the head. That man was reportedly shot inside the Jessop store, but it was unclear where the other victim was shot.

Police said the robbers escaped in a 1990 gray Oldsmobile Cutlass with license number 2SDL274, which had been reported stolen earlier.

Prospect Street was crowded with shoppers at the time of the robberies, but the throngs of people apparently did not faze the robbers. Witnesses said the gunmen were wearing ski masks and appeared to be armed with shotguns. It is not known if they were able to steal any merchandise.

“You should see the street. It’s absolutely packed with people. It’s amazing that something like this would happen with all these people around,” said Solomon Cohen, who works at the New Renaissance Gallery, located near both jewelry stores in a telephone interview minutes after the robberies.

On Saturday night, authorities in San Diego and the South Bay were kept busy by a group of youthful robbers who police said used .22- and .38-caliber revolvers in a series of street robberies. Two suspects were arrested late Saturday night, about three hours after the robberies began.

Curtis Royall, 18, and an unidentified juvenile were arrested at 11:04 p.m. in Southeast San Diego by police after residents helped them apprehend the suspects after they jumped out of the stolen vehicle they were driving and attempted to flee on foot. A third suspect escaped.

Details were sketchy Sunday, but according to a San Diego police report, the three suspects began their crime spree about 8 p.m. Saturday, when they robbed several victims at gunpoint at the Rusty Pelican restaurant parking lot in Mission Valley.

Witnesses told police the gunmen fled in a white Toyota. The car was later determined to have been stolen from a San Diego woman.

About 30 minutes later, police said the same suspects robbed a man who was using an automatic teller machine at Stadium Way and Texas Street. Police said the suspects then drove to the parking lot of Thrifty drug store at 32nd Street and University Avenue, where they robbed another victim at gunpoint.

At 9:10 p.m., National City police reported that gunmen fitting descriptions of the suspects in the San Diego robberies attempted to rob a man who was using an automatic teller machine at Euclid Avenue and Plaza Boulevard.

National City police Sgt. Craig Boegler said the victim reported that four youths in a white Toyota parked alongside his car and demanded money. A passenger in the Toyota pointed a handgun at the victim, police said. However, Boegler said the intended victim jumped inside his car, ducked, put the vehicle in reverse and escaped.

Sixteen minutes later, the same suspects robbed two women near Alta View Drive and Woodman Street in Paradise Hills at gunpoint and stole their purses, San Diego police said.

San Diego police Lt. Tom Orden said the suspects next drove to the 4000 block of Bonita Road in Chula Vista, where they committed another armed robbery. Minutes later, sheriff’s deputies reported that the same suspects pulled another street robbery near Sweetwater Road and Jamacha Road in Spring Valley.

By this time most police officers in San Diego and the South Bay were alerted to be on the lookout for the suspects and the stolen vehicle they were driving. At 11:04 p.m. Officers Walter Russell and Wesley Herring of the San Diego Police Department spotted the suspects driving near Woodman Street and Skyline Drive in Southeast San Diego.

The officers pursued the suspects for about five minutes to Cervantes Avenue, where three youths got out of the stolen Toyota and began running, police said. The 17-year-old suspect was captured immediately by police.

Royall was captured a few minutes later by police, who were assisted by several citizens, Orden said. The third suspect got away.

Orden said police recovered a .22-caliber revolver and money believed to have been taken during the suspects’ Saturday night robbery spree. Police said the three are also suspected of committing other armed robberies in the area.

Boegler said the suspects are also believed to have committed three armed robberies in National City on Thursday and Friday. He said the car used in the Saturday robberies was also used in the other holdups in National City.