A man and two juveniles have been arrested in connection with an armed robbery in Santa Maria as police try to determine if the trio are linked to a string of similar crimes in the city.
Lovell McKellop, 20, of Santa Maria and two juveniles were arrested in connection with the armed robbery of a convenience store in the 600 block of South Thornburg Street at 10:18 p.m. Saturday, according to the Santa Maria Police Department.
The suspects demanded money from the store employee and fled with an undisclosed amount of cash, police said.
Santa Maria police officers and detectives investigated the incident and made the arrests Sunday, according to Sgt. Paul Van Meel from the Santa Maria Police Department Detectives Bureau.
“Through the service of search warrants at various locations and the ongoing investigation they managed to locate and arrest three people in connection with this robbery,” detectives said in a news release.
The two juveniles were arrested for suspicion of possessing stolen property (related to the robbery) and possession of marijuana for sales. Both were booked into Santa Maria Juvenile Hall.
Van Meel said he couldn’t release their ages or genders.
The adult suspect initially told police his name was David Wilkerson, but officers determined that was not the man’s real identity. McKellop will be charged with giving a false identity, police said Thursday.
In the past couple of weeks, police said up to 10 crimes involving people on the streets and businesses have been robbed in incident that have some similarities.
“We’re looking into the possibility of how involved, if at all, this little group had been in the other robberies that we’ve had,” Van Meel said. “We’re obviously putting a lot of effort into that.”
One of the robberies occurred at an Orcutt convenience store, and Santa Maria police are working with the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Department into whether the two incidents could be related.
“It’s definitely something we’re looking at as a strong possibility,” Van Meel said.
— Noozhawk North County editor Janene Scully can be reached at jscully@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.