On Friday, the University of Washington sent out an alert to its followers warning them of the two reported armed robberies that happened 15 minutes apart.
According to the Seattle Police Department, the first incident happened around 6:15 p.m. when police said they answered a call about an armed robbery in an alley near the intersection of University Way Northeast and Northeast 42nd Street.
Shortly after the first call, SPD got another call about a similar robbery five blocks away from the first one. Police determined that the calls were related because of the similarities in the suspects’ descriptions, the proximity of both robberies and the time between both calls.
SPD requested help from the King County Sheriff’s Office’s Guardian One helicopter.
In the first robbery, the victim was found near his car in the alleyway near the “Cafe on the Ave” coffeehouse.
The victim told police through a translator that he was getting out of the car to visit a local restaurant when two people approached him and pointed a gun at his face. He told SPD that one of the suspects hit him before they took his money and ran off down the alley and west on Northeast 42nd Street.