Santa Cruz police investigate a string of armed robberies

SANTA CRUZ, Calif. (KION) Santa Cruz Police is investigating a string of brazen armed robberies that targeted businesses late at night on Wednesday.

Police say at least four incidents occurred: one at the 2300 block of Mission Street, another at the 400 block of Barson Street, one at the 1300 block of Ocean Street and another at the 300 block of Soquel Avenue.

The robbers were demanding cash from victims inside commercial businesses, and they used weapons during the incidents. The first robbery happened at around 9:30 p.m. on Wednesday. By 10:30 p.m. that night, there were three more armed robberies.

"So within about an hour time frame, we saw four robberies that occurred within a very close proximity to each other. So therefore, we're thinking they're all related," said Lt. Arnold Vasquez, who leads the Santa Cruz PD Investigations Unit.

Police say generally, armed robberies are premeditated. So they are looking into any patterns that could give clues into these particular incidents. There are at least four suspects so far.

"I have a team of investigators. They're working on processing video surveillance, they're interviewing some witnesses, re-interviewing some of the victims that happened to be on scene at the time," said Vasquez.

Luckily, no one was hurt during the robberies, and police say they have strong leads to follow. If you have any information regarding this case, you're encouraged to call Santa Cruz police.

"This is really one of our first bigger types of cases where we believe that they might all be related, at least so far this year," said Vasquez.

Santa Cruz police did chase a driver into Los Gatos at one point last night, where the suspect was able to get away on foot. But investigators are still trying to figure out if that incident is related to any of these robberies.