Extra

New: Robbery suspect arrested at gunpoint by Berkeley police responding to unrelated accident

Keith Burbank (BCN) and Planet
Tuesday April 25, 2017 - 08:55:00 PM

A robbery suspect was arrested at gunpoint this afternoon in Berkeley following a police response to an unrelated traffic crash, a police spokesman said.  

At 3:40 p.m. several officers responded to a rollover crash on Shattuck Avenue between Haste Street and Channing Way, spokesman Sgt. Andrew Frankel said.  

Numerous officers responded to help direct traffic. One of the officers allegedly saw a man with a gun in his hand.  

A chase ensued for about two blocks and the suspect was arrested at gunpoint. The man allegedly had just robbed a store in the 2500 block of Shattuck Avenue, Frankel said.  

No shots were fired and no one was injured in the robbery. 

One person in the traffic crash was taken to a hospital, Frankel said. 

Karen Cilman, who lives at Shattuck Senior Homes near the scene, told the Planet that this afternoon she heard the crash, which she described as "horrific".  

She said that two cars collided at Haste and Shattuck. One of them completely overturned, and was on the median.  

She reported that a woman was pinned under the car when many fire trucks and police cars arrived. 

She saw a lot of stuff in disarray which had spilled out of the car. It looked to her, she said, like perhaps the driver had been living in the car.  

One young man she spoke with, an onlooker, told her that one car had been trying to avoid hitting a person in a wheelchair who was crossing the street.