Features

Punched for cell 

A pair of bandits rained fists and feet on a 29-year-old Berkeley man at 1:18 a.m. on Sept. 29. A caller told police he’d just seen a pair of attackers pounding another man near the corner of Lincoln and Milvia streets. 

The victim had been yelling, “I don’t have anything,” said the witness. 

But the victim did have something—his cell phone—and once they had it, the baddies, a pair of heavy-set toughs in their late teens to early 20s, boogied. 

Pushing bandits 

A trio of bandits stole the purse of a 42-year-old Berkeley woman after first shoving her to the ground in front of her home in the 1400 block of Cypress Street on the morning of Sept. 29, said Officer Galvan. 

The woman told officers that the robbers, a trio of three men between the ages of 19 and 25, had driven by her home minutes earlier. 

Took the bus 

Two young bandits who claimed they hailed from Richmond robbed a 15-year-old Berkeley youth on the afternoon of Sept. 29 of his iPod and cell phone after they first punched him twice in the back of the head and once in the mouth near the corner of Bancroft Way and McKinley Street. 

The pair then headed for the wheels, an AC Transit bus. 

Gang banged 

The week’s two most serious assaults occurred on Sept. 29, with the first report coming to an emergency dispatcher at 9:17 p.m. 

Officers and emergency workers rushed to the 1700 block of 10th Street, where they found a young man reeling and bleeding from a head wound. 

Questioning revealed that the man had been assaulted with a hammer by his father, who had been drinking heavily. The father, 46, was taken to the county lockup at Santa Rita. 

The attacker’s grandson had witnessed the attack, said Officer Galvan. 

The second assault occurred about 20 minutes later outside Iceland, Berkeley’s endangered skating rink at 2727 Milvia St. 

The victim, a 17-year-old from Richmond, said the incident began earlier in the evening when he was approached on the ice by a group of fellow skaters clad mostly in red who demanded, “What gang do you belong to?,” said Officer Galvan. 

“I’m not saying,” he answered, and the group faded away. 

After he’d packed up his skates and walked into the parking lot, the quartet suddenly reappeared, at least one of them carrying a metal pipe, and began beating him, knocking him to the group and making off with one of his tennis shoes as he lay unconscious. 

He was taken to an emergency room for treatment of his injuries.