SAN JOSE — Seven suspects have been arrested on suspicion of involvement in a September jewelry store smash-and-grab robbery that garnered international headlines and resulted in the store’s elderly owner suffering a stroke, authorities announced Friday.
Police believe that these seven people were connected with a group of more than a dozen robbers who rammed a car into the front of Kim Hung Jewelry on Aborn Road in San Jose on Sept. 5 and made off with a bounty of jewelry, authorities said at a news conference. One of the robbers violently shoved the store’s 88-year-old owner to the ground during the robbery.
“Imagine spending decades pouring your heart and soul into a small business, grinding every day to serve your community and build a lasting legacy for your family. Then imagine a group of young thugs smashing through your doors, throwing you to the ground and stealing what you sacrificed a lifetime to create,” said Brian Shab, assistant chief of the San Jose Police Department. “Since that horrific day, every moment while these criminals remained free must have felt like an eternity, not just for the victims, but for the entire community.”
The suspects include Angel Herrera, a 21-year-old resident of Pacifica; Toddisha Mayfield, 31, of San Leandro; Zakhari Blue-Gordon, 23, of East Palo Alto; Tom Donegan, 19, of Manteca; Jacques Samuel, 18, of San Francisco; Cisco Lutu, 18, of South San Francisco; and Amari Green, a 21-year-old resident of San Francisco.
Shab added that several of the suspects are believed to be connected with other smash-and-grab robberies in the Bay Area, but did not specify any incidents Friday.
The brazen attack was one of several smash-and-grab robberies across the Bay Area in recent weeks. Twenty people, some armed, stormed a San Ramon jewelry store Sept. 22. Investigators also recently linked an East Oakland gang to dozens of robberies, including smash-and-grabs.
“When hordes of criminals came to Santa Clara County over the last month to target neighborhood jewelry stores, they may have expected helpless victims and easy scores,” said Santa Clara County District Attorney Jeff Rosen. “What they got in the end was handcuffs and, very soon, prison time.”
Rosen added that his prosecutors will “strive to make sure there’s accountability and justice.”
“This is our community. No one attacks us and walks away. No one gets left behind,” Rosen added. “Bad guys with bad intentions and bad actions will be arrested and sent to prison.”
The suspects were arrested in cities across the Bay Area between Sept. 22 and Oct. 2, according to a news release from the San Jose Police Department. While serving search warrants, officers also located several kilos of suspected cocaine, a firearm, a loaded magazine and multiple rounds of ammunition.
Mayfield, Blue-Gordon, Donegan, Lutu and Green have been booked into the Santa Clara County Main Jail on suspicion of robbery, and Samuel is being held at San Francisco County Jail and will be extradited to Santa Clara County at a later date, authorities said. Rosen did not announce formal charges on Friday. Herrera’s booking location was not initially listed by authorities.
“This was not a crime of desperation. This was organized theft and violence, the kind of smash-and-grab attack we’ve seen spreading across the Bay Area and the entire state,” said San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan. “People who think that if they move fast and act in numbers, they’re untouchable. They think they’ll just disappear into the crowd. They think someone else will take the fall.”
The investigation into the incident is ongoing as police seek additional suspects, Shab added. Police believe there were at least a dozen people involved in the Kim Hung robbery, and are also investigating several other robberies across the county. So far, the response has included more than 100 officers from five agencies, four SWAT teams and operations in seven cities.
“For the others who participated in this crime, I know it’s only a matter of time before we find you,” Shab said. “I urge you to turn yourself in before we come crashing through your door.”
On Sept. 5, a car rammed into the front of Kim Hung Jewelry on Aborn Road in San Jose where the 88-year-old shop owner was working with his son. More than a dozen people rushed the store, smashing jewelry cases before fleeing. One robber held the owner’s son at gunpoint.
Only a minute later, a second group of robbers pulled up, then immediately left the scene after seeing nothing was left to take from the ransacked store.
The robbers stole thousands of dollars worth of items, authorities said.
Bui, the shop owner who has been identified only by his family name, suffered a stroke during the robbery, and later a heart attack in the hospital; he is now recovering at home. Doctors confirmed that both were a direct result of the stress caused by the incident.
There have been 30 violent jewelry store robberies across California since March, including 16 smash-and-grabs, Mahan added.
The robbery also prompted the creation of a countywide program funded by the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office that provides funding for small businesses to connect existing security cameras to SJPD’s real-time intelligence center and install concrete planters in front of storefronts to block cars from driving through.
Shab also thanked the other agencies who were involved in the operations: the Milpitas Police Department, the Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety, the San Ramon Police Department, the San Francisco Police Department, the Oakland Police Department, the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office and the Bureau of of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.