S.D. police seek public’s help to find killer in June death of man at Sunset Cliffs
San Diego police are asking for the public’s help to locate the shooter responsible for the killing of a 34-year-old man at Sunset Cliffs Natural Park last June.
Police said Akili Cobbs, 34, was fatally shot on June 27 around 11:25 p.m. in the parking lot of the park on Ladera Street. Several callers phoned 911 to report gunshots.
When officers arrived, they found Cobbs suffering from multiple gunshot wounds. Emergency personnel administered CPR, but the victim died before he could be taken to a hospital.
Police are looking for a suspect believed to be in his early 20s, between 5 feet 6 and 5 feet 8 inches tall. The night of the shooting the gunman was wearing a blue Adidas hooded sweatshirt with a white logo on the front. He was seen leaving the area in a dark-colored sedan.
“Akili was with a companion prior to the shooting,” police homicide Lt. Jud Campbell said in an email. “They were in the parking lot of Ladera Park overlooking the beach.”
Campbell said police don’t know the motive
The lieutenant said Crime Stoppers is highlighting the case in hopes that someone will come forward with information that results in an arrest. A $1,000 reward is being offered.
“We’re hopeful that this release will prompt some witnesses to come forward,” Campbell said.
karen.kucher@sduniontribune.com
Man dressed in camouflage robs Kearny Mesa bank
KEARNY MESA
A man dressed in camouflage and claiming to be armed with a gun robbed a teller Tuesday afternoon at a bank in Kearny Mesa, authorities said.
It happened just after 3 p.m. at the Chase branch on the corner of Ruffin Road and Clairemont Mesa Boulevard, according to San Diego police Sgt. Kevin Gibson and officials from the FBI’s San Diego field office.
Though the robber told the teller he had a gun, no witnesses saw a weapon and no injuries were reported, Gibson said. The man demanded money from a teller, was given an undisclosed amount of cash and was last seen walking out of the business.
Surveillance images provided by the FBI showed the robber wearing a light-colored mask and a matching hat and a green camouflage jacket.
He also wore darker camouflage pants that appeared to not match the hat and jacket, and dark shoes with white soles.
Detectives from the San Diego Police Department’s robbery unit and agents from the FBI’s San Diego-area violent crimes task force were investigating the incident and seeking help from the public to identify the robber.
Anyone with information about the robbery or the identity of the bandit was asked to contact the FBI at (800) 225-5324 or tips.fbi.gov. Tipsters can also call San Diego County Crime Stoppers’ anonymous tip line at (888) 5808477, or submit anonymous information at sdcrimestoppers.org.
alex.riggins@ sduniontribune.com
Poway man charged in attack at COVID vaccine clinic
ORANGE COUNTY
A Poway man has been charged with attacking health care workers at a COVID-19 vaccine clinic in Tustin, calling them “murderers” and punching two of them, Orange County prosecutors announced Tuesday.
Prosecutors said in a news release that 43-year-old Thomas Apollo punched one worker twice, and another five times in the Dec. 30 attack at Families Together, which was operating in a mobile clinic in a parking lot.
Several people pinned down Apollo until police arrived, and police shocked him with stun guns during the struggle to arrest him.
Orange County prosecutors have also accused Apollo of groping a nurse at Orange County Global Medical Center as she treated him for cuts and scrapes after he was arrested. They said he bent the nurse’s finger back and grabbed her breast.
Apollo, who was released from jail the day after the attack, is scheduled to be arraigned March 30 in Orange County Superior Court on misdemeanor charges of battery and resisting arrest.
He faces up to three years in jail if convicted on all counts. It was not immediately clear Tuesday whether Apollo had retained an attorney.
Parsia Jahanbani, the mobile operations manager for Families Together of Orange County, told the Los Angeles Times earlier this month that the man grew angry after a security guard asked him to put on a mask.
Jahanbani said the man claimed the workers were complicit in a COVID-19 hoax and that he was “not a sheep.”
Jahanbani told the newspaper that the man punched him, then repeatedly punched and pinned a medical assistant. Jahanbani said it took five people, including two patients, to pry off the attacker.
Security video aired by the ABC station in Los Angeles shows the assailant punching and struggling with people. teri.figueroa@ sduniontribune.com
Mexican Consulate wants citizen’s death investigated SAN DIEGO
The Mexican government has requested an “expedite(d), impartial and thorough” investigation after a Mexican man apprehended by U.S. Border Patrol near the Otay Mesa Port of Entry died in federal custody, officials said Wednesday.
The death of the 38-year-old man was reported just after 3:20 p.m. on Jan. 12, the San Diego Police Department said.
“The Consulate has requested local authorities to conduct an expedite(d), impartial and thorough investigation to establish the facts and to hold accountable those responsible,” said Alberto Lozano, a representative with the Consulate General of Mexico in San Diego.
“(The Consulate) has as well established communication with a consulting attorney so that Mexico’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs can determine the legal measures to be undertaken in defense of the Mexican national,” he added.
The man who died, whose name has not been released, had been arrested earlier that day by a U.S. Border Patrol agent and “went into medical distress” while awaiting processing by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, San Diego police homicide Lt. Jud Campbell said.
The police Homicide Unit was called in to investigate the death.
The Consulate General of Mexico in San Diego is offering assistance to the man’s relatives to secure legal aid and transfer the body back to Mexico.
“Mexico’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs deeply regrets the death of the Mexican national and underscores the importance that repatriations occur in a safe, orderly and dignified manner, and with strict adherence to the current legal framework,” Lozano said in a statement. “The protection of Mexican community abroad constitutes the highest priority of our foreign policy.”