Police search for two armed robbers

Susan McCormack

NEWPORT BEACH -- Police spent Tuesday night searching for two armed

robbers who attacked a pair of pedestrians in separate incidents Monday

night. No one was seriously hurt in either attack.

Newport Beach police Lt. Doug Fletcher said the first attempted robbery

occurred at 7:07 p.m. in the 1400 block of Baypointe Drive. The second

incident occurred just minutes later, at 7:23 p.m., in the 1200 block of

Rutland Road, he said.

In both cases, Fletcher said, the robbers confronted a lone male victim

in an apartment complex parking lot. One pointed a handgun at the victim

and asked for money. In each incident, as the victim began to cooperate,

the armed man hit the victim in the head with the gun before both fled

without taking anything.

The victims, one 41 and the other 62, each called police after they were

attacked.

Fletcher said the suspects were described as Latinos in their early to

mid-20s, about 5 foot 8 inches to 5 foot 10 inches in height, with short

hair. They were driving a dark-colored, four-door, early 1990s model

Toyota or Nissan.

Fletcher said armed robberies such as these, in which a suspect

approaches a pedestrian, are unusual in Newport Beach.

“This was very out of the ordinary,” he said. “We don’t have too many of

these.”