By SANCHESKA BROWN

Tribune Staff Reporter

sbrown@tribunemedia.net

POLICE are on the hunt for 15 men they believe to be responsible for eight separate armed robberies throughout the capital on Tuesday night.

Assistant Commissioner of Police Stephen Dean said yesterday that while it was an unusually high number of armed robberies for one evening there is more the public can do to prevent themselves from being “easy targets”.

“One or two of these incidents may be related but for the most part we think separate individuals are responsible,” he said.

“If we see another few nights like that one, then we will be more concerned but we will continue to patrol the areas.

“We are also, once again, asking persons to be more conscious of their surroundings and please do what we tell them to do in terms of making deposits and exposing money and jewellery. We are asking people to not make themselves easy targets for these criminals.”

In the first incident, shortly after 4pm, two men were at Sandilands Village Road where two men armed with a handgun robbed them of cash and a cell phone before fleeing on foot.

Shortly before 8.30pm, police say a man was at Twynam Avenue where three men armed with handguns robbed him of a 1994 Ford Aerostar Van and sped off.

Around the same time police reported that a woman was sitting in her vehicle at Lawson Street, off Soldier Road, when a man armed with a handgun robbed her of cash and jewellery before fleeing on foot.

Minutes after that robbery, a woman was sitting in a vehicle in front of her home at Montagu Avenue when two men armed with handguns robbed her of her handbag before fleeing on foot.

Simultaneously, police say another woman was sitting in a vehicle at Chenille Avenue, off Soldier Road, when two men on motorcycles armed with handguns robbed her of cash and sped off.

In the sixth incident, shortly after 11.30pm, a man was sitting in a grey van at Lightbourne Avenue, where three men armed with handguns robbed him of his van.

One of the men sped off in the van and the other suspects drove away in a white Honda Odyssey vehicle.

Around midnight police say a man was driving his Silver Nissan vehicle in Malcolm Road and East Street, when three men armed with handguns robbed him of his vehicle and sped off.

In the final incident, shortly after 4am yesterday, a man armed with a knife broke into a home at Perpall Track, where he robbed two women of two handbags before fleeing on foot.

No one was hurt during any of these incidents. Anyone with information is asked to contact police at 911 or 919, the Central Detective Unit at 502-9991 or Crime Stoppers anonymously at 328- TIPS.