Features

Hate crime 

On Wednesday, Mar. 4, staff at the Jewish Community Center on Walnut reported a hateful message scrawled on the front steps of the center. Sometime between 5 p.m. and 9:30 p.m., an unknown person wrote the word “die” on the front steps of the JCC in chalk. The incident was reported as a hate crime. 

Store owner held up 

The owner of the Candy Bouquet on Martin Luther King Jr. Way and Cedar Street was held up at gunpoint Tuesday morning. The 32-year-old Richmond man was accosted in front of his store by a man brandishing a gun.  

The suspect, a man in his 20s, standing 6 feet and wearing dark sunglasses, a black baseball cap, and a light green camouflage hoodie, took the store owner’s cash and fled north on MLK. He got into a late 1980s-model black Jeep Cherokee with mud spatters on the side and drove off.  

Beating and attempted robbery 

On Thursday evening, two Berkeley men were beaten by a group of several juveniles on Channing Way and Bonar Street. Around 8 p.m., a 36-year-old man and his 39-year-old friend were walking west on Channing when they were attacked by a group of five or six unidentified young men. They were pushed to the ground and kicked repeatedly. Two suspects rifled through the pockets of one victim, but fled when a passing cyclist intervened. Nothing of value was taken.  

Bank robbery 

Berkeley and Oakland police arrested a 20-year-old alleged bank robber in downtown Oakland on Monday afternoon. The suspect, Glenn Williams, has been charged with holding up the Mechanics Bank on Hearst Avenue near Fourth Street in West Berkeley shortly after 1:30 p.m., making away with an unknown amount of cash. 

A witness reported observing Williams driving away in a black Dodge Neon without license plates. BPD officers spotted the car getting on I-80 at University Avenue and followed it to I-580 and then to downtown Oakland. Berkeley officers called for assistance from Oakland police. Williams got out of the car at 19th and Jackson streets in downtown Oakland. He was arrested in front of 200 Lakeside by BPD and OPD officers.  

The stolen cash was recovered, although Berkeley police were unsure whether the firearm had been found or not. Williams is charged with second-degree robbery and is currently being held at the Berkeley City Jail.