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View Winners → Crime Aug 31, 2022
| Photo courtesy of Scott Rodgerson/Unsplash
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A 25-year-old parolee was arrested Wednesday in the armed robbery of two people outside a 99 Ranch Market in Rowland Heights.
Dangelo Thomas was arrested in the 300 block of Lime Avenue in Long Beach on suspicion of multiple felony offenses, including robbery, possession of a firearm by an ex-felon and violation of parole, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.
During a search of the Long Beach residence, investigators allegedly located a loaded .45 caliber handgun and a loaded 9mm handgun.
Thomas, who is being held without bail, was on parole for a “gang-related offense involving firearms” at the time of the Rowland Heights robbery, according to the LASD.
Authorities also arrested 21-year-old Demoryie Watts on Aug. 12 in connection with the robbery.
The crime occurred on July 9 in the market’s parking lot, as a man and woman were loading items into their car after shopping. The suspects, both armed, attacked the pair and took the man’s Rolex watch before fleeing the scene in a white Dodge Challenger with paper plates, the sheriff’s department reported.
According to the Los Angeles Times, the Rolex was valued at $60,000.
The crime occurred in a prosperous, majority-Asian section of the east San Gabriel Valley, and a video of the attack and its aftermath quickly spread through the local Asian community, the Times reported.
Shortly after the crime, sheriff’s Capt. Steven Tousey told The Times that the victims — a man in his 60s and a woman in her 50s — suffered minor injuries and did not go to a hospital.
