Suspect charged in six violent robberies of taco trucks and street vendors across L.A.
A Los Angeles man was charged Monday in a series of robberies of taco trucks and street vendors last week. Prosecutors say that, over a violent two-hour span, three men drove to six sites where they waved guns in workers’ faces, went through their pockets and stole their tip jars.
Stayshawn Stephens, 26, pleaded not guilty Monday during a brief appearance in a downtown L.A. courtroom to a dozen counts of second-degree robbery with the aggravating factor of violent conduct.
Stephens was apprehended by Los Angeles Police Department detectives a day after the robberies, which took place in Hollywood, Echo Park and downtown. According to prosecutors, the suspects robbed the businesses before escaping in a white Honda Civic.
The LAPD’s Robbery Homicide Division is investigating a string of more than 20 holdups across Los Angeles since the beginning of May that they say could be connected. Investigators have not determined whether Stephens is a suspect in previous robberies.
“The ongoing violence targeting street vendors will not be tolerated,” L.A. County Dist. Atty. George Gascón said Monday. “These coordinated armed robberies on vulnerable individuals simply striving to earn a living are abhorrent. I thank the Los Angeles Police Department for their quick action in this case. We will continue to hold those who cause harm accountable.”
LAPD investigators said the spate of robberies on Wednesday began at about 9:40 p.m. in the area near 3rd and Bixel streets. Five minutes later, they say, the same suspects targeted a taco stand at Union Avenue and Shatto Street in the Westlake area before fleeing in a vehicle described as a white Honda. Then about 11 p.m., a taco stand in the 5900 block of Santa Monica Boulevard in Hollywood was robbed. A second location in the 6200 block of Hollywood Boulevard also was hit.
Ten minutes later, another taco truck at Alvarado Street and Glendale Boulevard was robbed by armed bandits. The string of robberies concluded about 11:30 p.m. when gunmen held up a stand at 9th Street and Broadway.
Los Angeles police said a woman was arrested after an Instagram video showing her attacking a Watts street vendor on Sunday evening was posted.
LAPD detectives described the suspects as men in their mid-20 to early 30s. During each incident, the suspects approached the victims, displayed a handgun, demanded money and escaped in a white sedan with stolen property.
Stephens has been ordered held in lieu of $1.3-million bail pending a Sept. 1 hearing.
He was previously arrested in Louisiana in 2017 on suspicion of being part of what authorities there described as a Los Angeles-based criminal organization that installed credit card skimming devices in gas pumps, stealing account information.
The surge of street vendor robberies in Los Angeles began on May 28 at 12:25 a.m. with a heist at Central Avenue and East 101st Street.
At the height of the pandemic, most businesses were forced to alter operations, but for street vendors, who are subjected to zoning permits and rising food costs, things became even more unstable.
Men armed with handguns struck two more taco trucks that night within a mile of the first robbery, according to police.
The men held up a taco truck at Century Boulevard and San Pedro Street in the South Los Angeles community of Green Meadows around 11 p.m., according to police. They then robbed another truck, at 103rd Street and Avalon Boulevard just a few blocks away, police said.
In the second of those robberies, of a Tacos Los Chemas truck, two suspects wearing hoodies jammed a gun into one victim’s neck and pistol-whipped another, according to video obtained by KTLA-TV. The suspects fled both robberies in a white car, police said.
A few days later, authorities say, the same suspects in the first holdup carried out two more robberies within five minutes of each other: one at East 103rd Street and Compton Avenue and the other at East 92nd Street and Central Avenue.
Mayor Karen Bass announced a new police task force targeting a string of smash-and-grab robberies around L.A.
There has also been at least one taco truck holdup in the Florence area, which is in the jurisdiction of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.
In all the robberies, the suspects made off with undisclosed amounts of cash, police said.
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