LA MESA – Police were looking for a man who carjacked a woman's 2002 Jeep Cherokee at gunpoint yesterday near a medical center.
The carjacking was reported at 1 p.m. in a parking lot on Fletcher Parkway near Grossmont Center Drive, said La Mesa police Lt. Allen White.
The victim told police she had just returned from buying lunch and parked her Jeep. As she got out, a man wearing nylon over his head and face pointed a handgun at her and demanded the Jeep. She gave him the keys and he drove away, headed for Fletcher Parkway. The woman was not injured.
The victim described the gunman as black or Hispanic, about 5-foot-10 or 5-foot-11, and wearing a dark colored long-sleeve shirt and dark gray sweat pants, White said. The Jeep was dark gray and had California license plate 4VYT281, White said.
– Mark Arner
2 masked gunmen
hold up El Cajon bank
EL CAJON – Two masked gunmen ordered everyone to the floor as they held up Southwest Community Bank on Avocado Boulevard yesterday, police said.
The men had guns drawn as they approached one teller, demanded money and told employees and customers to lie down, El Cajon police Lt. Tim Henton said.
An employee in a back room heard the commotion and called police about 1:30 p.m., moments before another worker triggered a silent alarm.
The robbers, black men wearing ski masks, dark baggy clothes and gloves, left in a gray Jeep Cherokee before officers arrived, Henton said.
Henton said investigators weren't sure whether the getaway Jeep was the same vehicle that had been stolen 30 minutes earlier in La Mesa.
– Pauline Repard
Youth stabbed
in backpack theft
EL CAJON – Police were searching for a man who stole a girl's backpack and then stabbed a boy who had been walking with her early Tuesday.
The robbery was reported at 3:15 a.m. on Redwood Avenue near Anza Street, El Cajon police said.
Police did not provide a detailed description of the robber or the age of the victims, but said the stab wounds to the boy were not life-threatening.
– Mark Arner
