Multiple teens arrested after downtown Santa Barbara robbery

SANTA BARBRA, Calif. — Multiple teenagers were arrested Saturday afternoon in downtown Santa Barbara after an armed robbery, according to the Santa Barbara City Police Department.

A group of six to eight teenagers brandished a knife and stole the e-bikes of two 15-year-old victims who were riding them at the top level of City Lot 10 — located between Ortega and Anacapa streets — around 3:36 p.m. The Santa Barbara Police Combined Communications Center was called about the incident.

According to the SBCPD, the downtown corridor became filled with officers. Moments later officers spotted two juvenile suspects riding the stolen e-bikes, but they attempted to evade officers on foot, knocking down an elderly man onto the ground in the process.

Officers were able to detain the two 15-year-old teenage suspects and located a knife on one of them.

According to SBCPD, officers were given an upper hand as one of the teenage victims had an air tag attached to the second stolen e-bike and were able to recover it after finding it abandoned. Officers located a third juvenile suspect in the same area and was arrested after determining the 15-year-old was also involved in the robbery.

The elderly man, knocked down by one of the teenage suspects, sustained a minor abrasion and was treated by medics on the scene, according to the SBCPD.

All three juvenile suspects were transported and booked into the Santa Barbara County Juvenile Hall for a felony robbery charge, a felony conspiracy to commit a crime charge and a misdemeanor elder abuse charge.