Police Search For Suspects In Brazen Downtown Robbery
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) - Police are searching for two men who held a mother and three young girls at gunpoint during a brazen robbery in downtown Pittsburgh.
The adult victim of an armed robbery in Gateway Center Sunday night says she thought for sure the gunmen might pull the trigger, and she had no intention of getting into a fight over cellphones and cash.
She and her 14 year-old daughter, as well as two of the girl's 14-year old friends were targets.
"The one gentleman walked up to me and the other one stayed back on the sidewalk and cornered the three girls and showed me his gun and said, "Here's what we're gonna do now. I need you to do this for me. Give me your money and give me everything," she said.
It all happened at a place downtown not known for armed robberies – near the fountain in Gateway Center surrounded by Gateway Center buildings.
"He put the gun to my chin and I have like a mark here and eventually he kept telling me he was going to shoot me, he was going to kill me, 'Give me what I need,' so we gave them our cell phones, our credit cards and they went through the girls bags. They gave them all their - they had their little wallets with credit cards not credit cards but gift cards cash, they had all that kind of stuff in there and so they got a lot."
Police canvassed the area and reviewed what surveillance footage was available.
City of Pittsburgh crime statistics actually show robberies in the central business district trending lower, at least according to the last figures available. 71 robberies in 2010, 87 in 2011, 93 in 2012, but just 57 last year.
Still, the teenagers especially are shaken.
"They're shaken up," she says. "And I mean I've never seen anything like this in my lifetime and so why should 14 year olds have to deal with this right downtown after we left - we came down here to have a great afternoon of ice skating and holiday festivities."
The gunmen were described as either African American or of Middle Eastern descent.
No arrests so far.
If you have any information, contact police.
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