Authorities ID 2nd suspect in El Paseo store thefts

PALM DESERT (CNS) - A Los Angeles man suspected as part of a state- wide retail-theft spree was identified as the second suspect in a pair of thefts in Palm Desert last year after he was arrested for allegedly returning to steal from the same store, authorities said today.

Isaiah Abdullah, 26, was arrested March 13 and booked into a Los Angeles County jail after a search warrant was served in the 4200 block of South Figueroa Street in Los Angeles, according to Sgt. Daniel Milbrandt of the Riverside County Sheriff ’s Department.

The first suspect, Nikolas Mallory of

Los Angeles, was arrested in October last year and was also booked into a Los Angeles County Jail.

Abdullah, Mallory and a third suspect, Ishmael Baptist, are also suspected in similar incidents that were investigated by the San Diego, Costa Mesa, Newport Beach, Livermore, and Palo Alto police departments, Milbrandt said.

Due to the state-wide crime spree, the California Department of Justice filed multiple felony charges against them by March 19.

“Soft-on-crime policies and laws have allowed retail theft rings to emerge as a growing problem in California, which requires a close working relationship with local law enforcement agencies in different jurisdictions,” Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco said in a statement.

“The Riverside County Sheriff’s Office will aggressively identify and arrest retail crime suspects and will remain engaged with DOJ to ensure these suspects are prosecuted to the full extent of the law.”

Deputies responded at 2:21 p.m. Oct. 7, 2023 to the 73000 block of El Paseo to a report of a grand theft at a retail store.

“Two suspects entered the store, stole several high-value items of merchandise, and ran out of the store within seconds,” Milbrandt said. “On October 18, the same suspects entered the same business and stole a significant amount of merchandise prior to fleeing the area.”

The investigation was then assumed by the Palm Desert Investigations Bureau with assistance from the Palm Desert sheriff’s station Business District Team, according to Milbrandt. Mallory was subsequently identified as the suspect in the Palm Desert thefts and in several similar robberies in Los Angeles.

The bureau and the LAPD’s Office Retail Crime Task Force used their investigative leads to serve search warrants in the 800 block of West 104th Street, where they found evidence implicating Mallory in the El Paseo thefts, Milbrandt said.