By Kat Schuster and Samantha Diaz
The Parkside College Dorm was placed on lockdown around 4 a.m. Saturday after two armed adult males dressed in black and wearing ski masks were spotted by a University Police officer on the Parkside property near Earl Warren Drive.
The two men, armed with a sawed-off shotgun and a knife, and a female getaway driver crashed near the dorms after robbing the 7-Eleven on Palos Verdes and Atherton at 2:22 a.m. Officers pursued the men onto campus until they slammed their car into a newsstand. The suspects ran on foot onto the Parkside dorm property.
Some photos of the scene in front of @CSULB Parkside dorms where two armed men crashed their car after robbing a nearby 7-11 pic.twitter.com/awDjuDHUqf
— Sammy (@sammy_writes_) February 9, 2019
“Woke up to one of the worst emails possible,” a Long Beach State Student tweeted at 4:45 a.m. “Really hoping everyone at Parkside is fine and those two guys leave ASAP.”
Both a campus-wide email and a tweet from UPD notified residents in Parkside to remain inside in a “shelter-in-place,” until officers confirmed that the suspects were no longer on campus.
According to Capt. Richard Goodwin of UPD, there would be increased law enforcement throughout the day until they finished their investigation. Officers searched the Parkside buildings.
“As time would allow it, one of our officers just happened to be at 7-Eleven,” Goodwin said.
Hyunsuh Pike, a resident of Parkside College, said he was outside the complex around around 2:30 a.m. where he was approached and detained by UPD for matching the physical description of the robbers.
“The cops came and cuffed me then held me in their patrol car,” he said. “They questioned me for about a hour, then let me go.”
Parkside College tenants who were awake at the time of the incident said they were not told to stay inside until the email-alert was sent at 3:45 a.m over an hour after the police chase occurred.
“No one came by to inform and tell us to stay indoors,” said Erin Cox, a first-year pre-nursing major. “Some people got curious and went outside. We were all kind of wondering what happened.”
Cox added that her roommate saw police car hazard lights and helicopter lights beaming through their window.
Many other Parkside residents reported that they slept through the ordeal and didn’t know of the occurrence until Sunday morning upon checking their emails.
“I was asleep when it happened but I was awoken by a group chat message,” said Patrick Roche, a first-year biology major. “I didn’t think it was anything to worry about.
According to UPD, residential advisers were told to notify their floors to stay indoors while the search for the robbers was ongoing.
The three suspects have not been located. The getaway car has been impounded by UPD.
Austin Brumblay, News Editor contributed to this story.
This story was updated Feb. 10 at 7:28 p.m.
