CSPD continues to investigate a recent uptick in armed robberies over past week

Over the past week, armed robberies have become a common occurrence here in Colorado Springs.

For example, there was a string of robberies that happened last Saturday night and into Sunday. These robberies along with a carjacking Wednesday Night and another armed robbery early Wednesday morning have police hard at work investigating.

Lt. Howard Black with CSPD said, “We definitely know that some of these robberies have similarities that the detectives are looking at. But, it’s really hard to say in this short of time that we have this huge increase of robber activity.”

On Wednesday morning an armed robbery suspect prompted a manhunt in Northeast Colorado Springs putting multiple schools on lockout while they searched for the suspect.

“We see robberies like every crime, kind of ebb and flow,” said Lt. Black.

But, how should you handle one of these situations when you’re staring down the barrel of a gun?

Lt. Black said, “The overwhelming majority of the time if you just comply they want to get in, they want to get out as quickly as possible.”

Black said it’s very rare for an armed robbery to turn deadly. So, it’s important that you protect yourself and be a good witness, “You’re looking for clothing description, you’re looking for height and weight, looking for mannerisms, how are they moving around? Is there something about there speech? As descriptive as you can possibly be.”

And if you do survive a terrifying situation like this one here, Lt. Black said they offer help like victim advocates and clinical interventions.