Crime

When robbery suspect Edward Power, 58, of Carlsbad (click here for 2005 photo) robbed an Oceanside Wells Fargo Bank yesterday (Monday, November 2, 2010) he claimed to be the Geezer bandit. Now, the FBI is reportedly saying he is not man they’re looking for in all the previous bank robberies according to a story in the San Diego Union Tribune.

The FBI said the real Geezer Bandit, named for his elderly appearance, is still wanted. The last robbery attributed to him was June 24 at a bank in Temecula. Authorities say the Geezer has robbed 11 banks since August 2009.

As Carlsbad Lt. Kelly Cain told us last night, “Why someone would claim to be a guy wanted by the FBI during a robbery, I do not know.”

[Link: San Diego Union-Tribune and North County Times]

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(November 1, 4:45 PM) The Village Apartments in the 3600 block of Roosevelt St. are currently closed by Carlsbad Police as a SWAT operation is conducted.

According to Carlsbad Police, a car matching the description of one used in several armed robberies today (including two banks) was followed to the tiki-themed apartment complex. Two people are currently in custody (one a white male in his late 50s with long gray hair and a woman) and a SWAT team is preparing to sweep the complex.

Village Apartment residents are being told that they could be barred from returning to their homes for up to an hour, maybe two. Carlsbad Police are on the scene as well as an field evidence technician from the Oceanside Police Department. Earlier seven Carlsbad Police Cars, two Oceanside Police Units, one City truck, and the San Diego County Sheriff’s Helicopter were on the scene.

The San Diego Union-Tribune is now reporting that the man arrested identified himself as “the Geezer Bandit”.

The arrest followed a short standoff with the Carlsbad police SWAT team on Village Drive near Roosevelt Street, said Carlsbad police Lt. Bruce May. Another person also was arrested. . . May said the SWAT incident followed the robbery in Oceanside and two robberies in Carlsbad — one at a medical facility and one at a bank. He said witnesses wrote down a license plate number and a vehicle description.

One resident of the Village Apartments confirmed that one suspect (the man with long gray hair) “is one of my neighbors. Yeah, he lives in the complex.”

According to Carlsbad Police Lt. Kelly Cain, the suspect attempted to rob a medical facility on El Camino Real in Carlsbad, but was told they had no cash. Minutes later a “unsuccessful robbery” was attempted at the Carlsbad Bank of America on El Camino Real, and finally the Wells Fargo Bank on Vista Way in Oceanside was robbed.

“The license plate from the Oceanside robbery comes back to this address,” Cain said at the scene. “Officers set up and saw a male adult pull up, exit the vehicle, enter the house. Officers surrounded the house. He came out the back door about 30 minutes later. A woman also exited the house and both were detained for investigation. We believe we have reasonable cause to hold both of them.”

Cain said it did not appear that the woman being held was involved with the robberies themselves.

By 6:15 PM residents were still being kept from their homes while the Carlsbad Police department waited for a search warrant. Cain said depending on how the search goes The Village Apartments residents could be back in their homes within by 7 or 8 PM.

Follow the jump for more photos from this afternoon’s scene.

[click to continue…]

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Another panga full of suspected illegal immigrants was arrested at Carlsbadistan’s Ponto Beach (a.k.a Ponto Landing) at 2:30 AM on Friday October, 16, 2010. Thanks to work from a “multiagency force” 21 people were arrested, according to a story in the North County Times.

Many of those aboard the boat ran ashore, while three others tried to escape by pushing the boat back to sea —- but they gave up that attempt when they spotted the emergency lights of an approaching boat with law enforcement officers aboard, the agency said. . . Officials arrested 20 men and one woman as suspected illegal immigrants, and seized the boat, officials said.

For a Carlsbadistan record of past Ponto arrests click here.

[Link: North County Times]

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Carlsbad’s Laguna Riviera Park as children were being released.

In the hours since suspected gunman Brendan L. O’Rourke, 41, walked onto the campus of Carlsbad’s Kelly School a little after 12 PM October 8, 2010 and began firing a handgun more information has come out regarding day’s events. Below are links to some of the most recent coverage.

• North County Times: Destroy painted on bedroom walls of suspected gunman
• NBC San Diego: The Heros Who Allegedly Took Down A Gunman
• NBC San Diego: First Look at the Carlsbad Shooting Suspect
• NBC San Diego: Gunman ID’d in Carlsbad School Shooting
• North County Times: Neighbors say construction workers are real heroes
• North County Times: Kelly Elementary students talk about the shooting (video)
• Associated Press: Police Say School Gunman Not Cooperating
• Sign On San Diego: Shots Fired At Carlsbad School; Man Arrested
• CBS News: Scott Chandler Says Shooter “Wasn’t All There”
• CNN International: California school shooting suspect identified
• North County Times: Workers tackle school gunman who shot two children
• North County Times: Parents, students endure anxious hours during lockdown

We’ll add more as information become available.

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Some completely unedited video from this afternoon at Kelly School. Waiting parents were desperate to get any news at all regarding the welfare of their children who were locked in the school while police cleared the area.

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Click here for a photo gallery.

At 12:12 PM today (Friday, October 8, 2010) a man in his early 40s, described by witnesses as “white with short gray hair” drove to Kelly Elementary School (at the corner of Park and Kelly Drive) got out of his car, and began shooting a handgun at children on the playground. He was apprehended minutes later. Two second grade students were injured with non-threatening wounds in their upper extremities and were transported by helicopter to Rady Childrens’ Hospital.

According to a story on NBC San Diego. Local Carlsbadistan big wave surfer and stand up paddler Scott Chandler jumped in with two construction workers to take down the suspect.

He said that he and a couple of construction workers tackled the man. “I believe he ran out of bullets, then ran to a fence, chased by a couple guys,” Chandler said, whose two children both graduated from the school. . . The gunman had a box of bullets in his pants that police recovered and had brought a 5-gallon gas can with him as well. Law enforcement located a propane tank after the shooting and began to use a robot to examine the tank at about 1 p.m. The tank is leaning on a silver four-door American-made sedan — possibly a Crown Victoria — that was blocked off by a black pickup truck and a police patrol car.

Parents began arriving at Laguna Riviera Park around 1 PM not sure what to expect and knowing only what they heard from friends. Many were on the edge of tears. It wasn’t until 1:15 PM that an officer explained to the gathered group that “an armed suspect on the campus has been taken into custody” and that the children we currently locked down. “I’m going to need everybody to by on my side and be as patient and calm as you can,” he said. “And trust us that we are trying to make everything safe so that we can get everyone to you as quickly as we can.

As we mentioned before it wasn’t until 2:35 PM that the first students began exiting the school.

Click the link for the rest of the NBC story, or click here for a photo gallery.

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[Update: 2:35 PM, October 8, 2010] Most parents standing here in the shade at Carlsbad’s Laguna Riviera Park have been here less than two hours but to someone waiting to be reunited with their children after a tragic event like today’s, it must seem much longer.

The first children (a Kindergarten classes) were greeted with cheers as they walked out to meet their parents at 2:35 PM.

As the children exit the school the sidewalks are filling with parents who have rarely been happier to walk their children home.

The first Kindergarden students released walk hand-in-hand to meet their parents after being on lockdown for nearly three hours.

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[Update: 1 PM, October 8, 2010] According to a Carlsbad Police officer speaking to parents on a basketball court in Laguna Rivera Park an “armed suspect on campus has been taken into custody” at Kelly Elementary School in Carlsbad.

The students are currently on lockdown until the school is cleared. Both Park and Kelly are closed on both sides of the school.

There are reports of people having heard shots fired earlier at the scene.

According to parents two children were shot in the arms and had minor injuries. They have been life-flighted to Rady Childrens’ Hospital. The parents of the injured students have been contacted.

Local big wave surfer Scott Chandler is being credited with helping two other men take the shooter down.

1:51 PM Parents are lined up, by grade, awaiting the release of their children. Parents are mostly relieved but anxious.

Police officers with dogs and automatic weapons continue to patrol the school.

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