Robberies in first quarter of 2017 at five year high for Colorado Springs
Colorado Springs’ robbery rate during the first three months of 2017 is up 10 percent from the same time period last year.
Data released Friday by the Colorado Springs Police Department shows that the total number of robberies in the first quarter of 2017 is the highest first-quarter total in at least five years.
Police spokesman Lt. Howard Black said he wasn’t alarmed by the increase, especially given Colorado Springs’ size, although he added that “one robbery is one robbery too many in the city.”
“Any robbery, that’s a traumatic event for an individual to have to go through – to have someone using force to take an item from you,” he said.
A robber isn’t necessarily armed, Black said, and money isn’t always the goal. For example, a convenience store robbery could involve a suspect forcibly taking cigarettes and beer, he said.
For the first three months of 2017, the data shows that police investigated 44 business robberies and 72 personal robberies. For the first three months in 2016, police investigated 41 business robberies and 64 personal robberies.
In 2016, the unofficial Colorado Springs clearance rate for robberies – the rate that robberies have resulted in an arrest – was 33.1 percent, Black said. The national robbery clearance rate in 2016 was 29.3 percent, according to the FBI.
“I continue to be amazed by how the Robbery Unit can make these arrests based on how little information and descriptions (are) available,” Black said. “That’s unbelievable police work.”
The Police Department’s Robbery Unit consists of six detectives and one sergeant, he said.
In recent weeks, police have announced arrests in multiple strings of robberies, but the crimes persist.
Police arrested four teenagers on suspicion of robbing seven convenience and liquor stores. In the robbery at Empire Liquors, 3381 N. Academy Blvd., store owner Donat Herr was shot and killed. In those cases, police arrested two unnamed juveniles and Dustin Cole Logan, 19, and Phinehas Tyree Daniels, 18.
Joseph Martinez, 36 and his brother John Martinez, 30, were arrested after a string of six pharmacy robberies from November 2016 through March. Police say Joseph Martinez used several disguises as he robbed the stores, sometimes threatening the lives of the clerks.
Anthony Jaquil Robinson, 22, was arrested after an April 5 robbery of a 7-Eleven on the 4600 block of Austin Bluffs Parkway. In that case, police say two masked men pointed a gun at the clerk, demanded money and ran off.
Justin Kyle Leonard was arrested after a March 22 robbery of a 7-Eleven on the 1900 block of North Academy Boulevard. In that case, a masked man shot the clerk in the foot during the robbery and then drove away.
Crime scene photo by KKTV.
A man is taken into custody in this Gazette file photo.
Crime scene photo by KKTV.
A man is taken into custody in this Gazette file photo.