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Berkeley Police Announce Armed Robbery Charges against Six

By Jeff Shuttleworth (BCN)
Thursday October 21, 2010 - 09:46:00 AM

Six men have been charged with armed robbery in connection with two separate investigations involving five different victims, Berkeley police said last night. 

The first investigation involves two robberies committed on Oct. 13, police said. One victim was robbed at 7:52 p.m. at the Ohlone Greenway in the 1300 block of Cedar Street. Then at 9:47 p.m., two victims were robbed at the corner of Russell and Wheeler streets. 

A shotgun was used to commit both crimes, according to Berkeley police Sgt. Mary Kusmiss. 

Charged in connection with the crimes are 18-year-old Samuel Hall of Antioch, 19-year-old Kevin Samuel Polk of Berkeley and twin brothers Michael Anthony Glover and Markell Antwan Glover, both 18-year-old Richmond men. 

Kusmiss said the Alameda County District Attorney's office has also charged the men with a similar robbery involving a victim at Hudson and Boyd streets in North Oakland. 

She said Berkeley and Oakland police shared information about the incidents. 

Kusmiss said the cases were solved when Sgt. Brian Wilson and Officer Peter Lee were on patrol in South Berkeley at about 3:40 p.m. last Thursday and saw a car that matched the description of the suspect vehicle associated with the series of armed robberies. 

Wilson and Lee stopped the car at Prince and King streets, and during a search of the car, they found property that had been stolen from the robbery victims, Kusmiss said. 

Separately, Mario Anthony Whitty, 23, and Damien Green, 19, both from Richmond, have been charged with armed robbery for an incident in which a shotgun was pointed at a victim at Ellis and Prince streets in Berkeley on the night of Oct. 5, according to Kusmiss. 

She said robbery detectives discovered that the suspects had used the victim's stolen credit cards soon after the incident, and the activity was caught on a surveillance video. 

Within 48 hours, detectives were able to identify the suspects, serve search warrants at their homes, and arrest them, Kusmiss said.