One of the four suspects involved in a “flash mob” robbery in downtown D.C. late Wednesday morning has been arrested, according to police.
Police Cmdr. Duncan Bedlion said that officers took a 17-year-old boy into custody after the suspected vehicle had fled the area of the robbery and crashed a short distance away in the 700 block of K Street Northwest.
The robbery itself took place at a store in the 1000 block of H Street Northwest around 11 a.m.
Bedlion said they are looking at whether the suspected vehicle was used in a separate robbery at the Atmos clothing store in Georgetown earlier this week.
He added that the robbery was done in a flash mob style — where suspects barge into a store to try and scare victims.
“The common denominator is there’s intimidation involved,” Bedlion said. “In this particular scenario, all four suspects had come in very abruptly. One of them was holding their waistband as if they had a weapon. No weapon was observed — let me emphasize that — no weapon was found, but they did try to intimidate people in the area and inside the store.”
Bedlion said that police recovered most of the merchandise that was stolen, which was thousands of dollars worth of clothing.
Of the three suspects still unaccounted for, they are all described as between the ages of 17 and 25. Two of them were wearing dark clothing, and the other was wearing a dark green hoodie and lime green shoes.
Below is the area where the robbery took place:
