Sheriff's Office Eyes Rash of Marin City Robberies

Marin City, Mill Valley's neighbor to the south, continues to be plagued by robberies, with the latest incident occurring Tuesday afternoon when the operator of an ice cream truck was robbed at gunpoint, according to the Marin County Sheriff’s Office.

Sheriff’s Lt. Berry Heying said the three suspects were wearing black hooded sweatshirts and black pants, partially concealing their faces with the sweatshirt hoods. One suspect held a black semi-automatic pistol to the victim’s abdomen and demanded his cash, he said, fleeing into the public housing area after taking $160, Heying said.

Sheriff’s deputies searched the public housing area for the suspects and detained one subject who was running from the area, but the victim was unable to identify the man and he was subsequently released.

The alleged robbery comes on the heels of at least five similar incidents in the area in recent weeks, each involve similarly attired suspects. Deputies patrolling the Marin City area noted that approximately 70 percent of the males seen in the area have been wearing black hooded sweatshirts and black jeans, which has “complicated the investigation of these crimes and frustrated the identification of suspects by their victims,” Heying said.

The string of robberies include an incident last Sunday in which three men confronted a 69-year-old man as he entered his apartment complex on Terners. One of the men had a semi-automatic handgun and another took his wallet before all three fled into the public housing area, Heying said.

The suspects, said to be black males in their late teens or early 20s who are between 5 feet 5 inches and 5 feet 9 inches tall, have all taken pains to conceal their faces in the robberies by wearing black hoods, Heying said.

"We'll probably have to catch them in the act," he said.

On June 16 at about 10 p.m., a victim fought off unarmed suspects who tried to rob him, Heying said. Ten days later, another person was robbed of his iPhone and beaten around 9 p.m.

On June 29 at 8:30 a.m., a passenger was robbed of his wallet and cellphone and beaten on the underpass walkway, Heying said. A fourth victim was robbed of his cellphone and backpack around 11 p.m. on July 2, he said. One of the suspects was armed with a short-barrel revolver.

Similar incidents have occurred in and around the Golden Gate Transit bus stop in the past, he said.

"We make arrests and it starts up again in six or eight months," Heying said.

The sheriff's office has increased patrols in the area, but bus riders are advised to be aware of their surroundings, walk in groups, stay in well-lighted areas and avoid contact with strangers, Heying said.

Anyone with information about the crimes is asked to call sheriff's detectives at (415) 499-7265 or Bay Area Crime Stoppers at (800) 222-TIPS.

--Bay City News Service contributed to this report.