Robber armed with knife in custody after new attack

Update: In comments, below, Miriam has provided a link to raw KIRO 7 helicopter news footage of the suspect being placed in a police car, and the victim being interviewed.

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Police arrested an armed robber this afternoon after he attacked a woman on Roosevelt Way Northeast at Northeast 71st Street.

Update: From a Seattle Police news release:

Police arrested a man armed with a knife in Roosevelt Tuesday afternoon after he stole a woman’s purse. The arrest comes after a string of similar robberies in nearby North Seattle neighborhoods, and detectives are investigating whether the cases may be connected.

At about 2:20 p.m. today, police received a report that a man in a windbreaker had cut the purse off the woman’s arm and ran through the yards of several homes near Northeast 71st Street and Roosevelt Way Northeast. Officers caught up to the man and arrested him.

Detectives were already working five similar robberies reported earlier this month.

The first robbery was reported on February 2nd, by a 91-year-old woman, who said a man armed with a knife had stolen her purse as she was walking up the steps to her home near Northeast 75th Street and 39th Avenue Northeast.

Almost two weeks later, on February 14th, a robber armed with a knife  cut open the back pocket of a 77-year-old man and stole his wallet near Northeast 60th Street and 35th Avenue Northeast. After stealing the man’s wallet, the robber shoved the man to the ground and fled.

On February 20th, a robber cut the strap off a woman’s purse near Northeast 72nd Street and Roosevelt Way Northeast—just a block from the scene of today’s robbery.

A half-hour after that incident, a robber armed with a box cutter sliced the strap on a woman’s purse near Northeast 65th Street and 35th Avenue Northeast, cutting the woman’s hand in the process.

Finally, on February 25th, a man grabbed a woman’s purse right off her shoulder as she was walking near Northeast 75th Street and 35th Avenue Northeast, as she was on her way home from the grocery store.

All the robberies, including today’s incident, took place between 2 p.m. and 3 p.m.

Robbery detectives are now transporting the man arrested today back to police headquarters, where they will interview him. Again, detectives haven’t yet determined whether these cases are connected, but we’ll post any additional details about these robberies as we get them.