Culver City Police are looking for the man caught on camera snatching a woman’s purse right off the chair she was sitting in at a restaurant earlier this month.
“I felt terrible because they didn’t even get a chance to even eat,” said Alan Schulman, co-owner of Akasha restaurant in Culver City. “I was blown away.”
The crime was swift and the reaction was too.
“The husband of the woman whose bag was stolen is chasing him. A husband and wife who had just left the restaurant and getting into their car, they took off after him,” Schulman said.
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Schulman said the incident happened on May 14th during dinner time.
He says the people who chased after the suspect found him and two others and that’s when things took a dangerous turn.
“They wrestle him down, they get the bag away from him. He’s putting up a fight and one of his buddies who was in a car, double-parked, gets out of the car and fires off a shot in the air,” Schulman said.
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The entire ordeal happened in just minutes.
Police arrived soon after and were able to piece together surveillance video from multiple businesses.
Schulman is grateful police stepped up patrols in the area immediately.
“Crime and homelessness, everybody wrestles with that. When they start shooting guns off that’s a different story,” Schulman said.
He said police have identified one of the men, but need help identifying the other two.
So while he’s reassuring his customers and staff they’re safe he’s encouraged by how many people helped in that difficult moment.
“It says something about this town too. That’s the… people care, which is a good thing,” Schulman said.
