Police were seeking help from the public after another armed robbery in a southwest Little Rock neighborhood straddling Baseline Road.
Gerardo Rubio, 25, is the 15th person to be held up at gunpoint in the area south of Interstate 30 this year.
Officers responded about 9:51 p.m. Friday to La Potosina grocery store at 5412 Baseline Road, a half-mile from Rubio's home. Rubio told police he had been leaving the store when two black males approached him from behind, according to a police report. One of them pointed a gun at Rubio and demanded his belongings.
The robbers fled with $400 and Rubio's identification and bank cards, according to the report. The robbers were last seen running north on Shelley Drive. Officers searched the area but made no arrests.
No injuries were reported. Investigators obtained surveillance footage of the robbery, the report states.
Police increased patrols in the mostly Hispanic neighborhood after a string of similar holdups last month. They also changed some officers' shifts from day to night and sent Spanish-speaking officers to neighborhood churches to talk with residents.
Police charged Robert Earl Corney, a 20-year-old resident of the neighborhood, in the first armed holdup reported there this year. But robberies continued, most under similar circumstances. Many victims reported being followed home or approached outside their residences by multiple suspects described as black males.
Investigators believe at least six of the holdups are connected.
No additional arrests had been made as of Monday. Police spokesman Lt. Sidney Allen said earlier this month that police needed information from the public to develop suspects. He said Monday that was still the case.
The police southwest division, which is composed of seven districts, had reported 31 robberies of individuals as of Feb. 9, the last date such data were available. That was the highest in the department. It was three more robberies than in the same period last year.
Two districts in the southwest division had accounted for more than 64 percent of its holdups. Those districts share a border where the robbery-hit neighborhood is located.
Investigations into the robberies are ongoing.
Metro on 02/17/2015