Armed robber makes off with $7 from doughnut shop; dispute over speeding car ends in stabbing
Two La Cañada businesses were the scenes of crimes this past weekend, after an armed robber made off with $7 from Golden Donut Place on Saturday and a road rage-inspired argument between customers outside Sport Chalet Sunday led to a stabbing.
Lt. Randy Tuinstra, watch commander with the Crescenta Valley Sheriff’s Station, said deputies were called to Golden Donut Place, on the southwest corner of Foothill Boulevard and Gould Avenue, at around 11:20 a.m. on Saturday by a female employee who reported she was threatened by a man carrying a handgun.
“The suspect had entered the doughnut shop and actually ordered a cup of coffee and a doughnut,” Tuinstra said, adding that the armed man was a white male, approximately 5 feet 6 and weighing about 160 pounds. At the time of the incident, he was wearing a dark knit cap with a blue flannel jacket and dark pants.
When a group of customers arrived to the shop shortly after the suspect, the man insisted the employee let them go ahead of him, Tuinstra reported.
“As soon as they left, he removed a gun, set it on the counter and said, ‘Give me all your money,’” the watch commander continued. “She gave him the money that was in the register — $7 cash.”
The employee could not identify specific features of the gun, but said the suspect took it and fled from the store, heading eastbound on Foothill Boulevard. Sheriff’s deputies issued a crime broadcast but were unable to locate the robber, Tuinstra said.
The next day, at around 2 p.m., deputies responded to a call of aggravated assault in the parking structure outside Sport Chalet. A man reported he’d been walking in the structure with his family when a man — described as a Latino male aged 30 to 35, about 5 feet 9 — drove by him at a fast rate of speed.
The victim shouted at the man driving the vehicle, a gray, newer-model Ford Focus sedan, exclaiming, “Slow down, you’re going to hit a kid,” Tuinstra confirmed Monday.
That’s when the driver, still in his vehicle, approached the man and began to ask him what he was going to do about it. Tuinstra reported that the man exited his vehicle and continued to escalate the situation, using expletives against the other man.
When the man turned his head to tell his family to run to the car for safety, the driver allegedly punched him in the face, causing a laceration near his eye. After a brief struggle, the victim caught the driver in a headlock from which he could not disentangle himself.
“As the suspect was trying to get out of the headlock, he took out something like a little pocket knife and stabbed (the man) in the leg,” Tuinstra said.
The stabbing startled the victim, who released his hold on the man, allowing him to return to his car and take off westbound on Town Center Drive, the watch commander continued. Paramedics treated the victim’s wounds, which included a 2-inch stab wound on his left leg.
Tuinstra said detectives were working in both instances to retrieve any video surveillance footage from surrounding businesses that may be able to provide them with more details about the suspects and their vehicles.
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Sara Cardine, sara.cardine@latimes.com
Twitter: @SaraCardine
