(November 18, 2009) -- The clerk at a Wrigley area medical marijuana outlet was shot, and the operation was robbed of its marijuana in an armed robbery at midafternoon Monday (Nov. 16).
LBPD Public Information Officer Nancy Pratt says that at approx. 2:10 p.m., two armed suspects entered the operation in the 2600 block of Magnolia Ave. One of the suspects allegedly pointed a handgun at the employee and threatened him while the other suspect proceeded to gather the marijuana on hand.
PIO Pratt says that during the robbery, there was a scuffle between one of the suspects and a customer and the store employee was shot in the lower body...and transported by LBFD to a local hospital with a non-life threatening injury.
LBPD officers responded to the scene. The suspects -- described as two male Hispanics, 25 to 30 years of age -- fled on foot.
The armed robbery takes place as the LB City Council considers adopting an ordinance that would regulate medical marijuana collectives (not retail dispensaries)...and on Nov. 10 directed the City Attorney's office to provide a second draft for Council consideration that (if adopted) would ease restrictions proposed in an initial draft.
On November 10, City Attorney Bob Shannon suggested that the Council might want to hear from LBPD in considering the draft ordinance. City Prosecutor Tom Reeves has separately expressed concerns (in other venues) about how a city ordinance regulating medical marijuana collectives might operate [paraphrase] in "real world" conditions...including the use of city services.
The second draft of an ordinance is scheduled to return to the Council in about a month.
LBPD asks anyone with information regarding the Nov. 16 Wrigley medical marijuana armed robbery/shooting to contact LBPD Robbery Detective Don Collier at (562) 570-7464.
