HIGH SCHOOLERS ROBBED AT GUNPOINT
LA MESA
Two young men, one of them armed with a handgun, are suspected of robbing at least four Grossmont High School students Wednesday near campus, police and school officials said.
One of the robberies, which involved three victims, happened near a La Mesa gas station across the street from the campus, which straddles the La Mesa-El Cajon border, officials said. Two other robberies occurred in El Cajon.
The same two suspected robbers are believed to have been involved in each incident, officials said.
One happened around 12:45 p.m., about an hour after school let out for the day, when three male students were walking near the Shell gas station on Murray Drive, La Mesa police Sgt. Dan Herrin said.
Just as the victims reached the gas station, a blue sedan — possibly a Nissan Sentra — pulled into the driveway and stopped, Herrin said. As the driver got out and demanded money from the victims, the passenger in the front seat pointed a handgun at them.
The driver took cash from two of the students, then drove off west on Murray Drive, Herrin said.
In a letter sent out Wednesday afternoon to Grossmont High families, Principal Daniel Barnes wrote that similar robberies “occurred with two different male students east of the District Office, in El Cajon on El Cajon Boulevard.”
According to Barnes, the individuals who robbed the students in El Cajon were also driving a blue Nissan Sentra.
On Thursday, El Cajon police spokesman Randy Soulard provided details about one robbery, but described the car that was involved as a Mitsubishi. He said it happened around noon as a high school student was walking on El Cajon Boulevard, southeast of the campus.
“It is possible our case is related to the La Mesa incident,” Soulard wrote in an email.
La Mesa police described the driver as a Hispanic male with a light complexion, about 17 or 18 years old, with brown eyes, groomed eyebrows and a mustache.
Police described the gunman in the passenger seat as a Hispanic man, about 18 or 19, and wearing an orange long-sleeved shirt. He had black wavy hair with highlighted or frosted tips.