Three people were robbed within an hour Saturday in Hillcrest, and Little Rock police believe the two holdups are related, a spokesman said.
The latest robberies bring to four the number of armed holdups in the same neighborhood in October.
Little Rock Police Department Lt. Steve McClanahan said the department's robbery unit thinks the same crew robbed two women in the 300 block of Beechwood Street at 12:24 a.m. Saturday, switched cars, and then robbed another woman about half an hour later in the parking lot of the Kroger at 614 Beechwood St.
The first two women were walking along Beechwood when a white SUV, possibly a Cadillac Escalade, pulled up alongside them, a police report said. One of the women told police that two men got out of the car and pointed guns at them.
The robbers took the women's iPhones, purses, identification, cash and credit and debit cards, the report said. One of the women told police the men were black and no older than 25, according to the report.
At 12:57 a.m., a woman was getting into her car at the Hillcrest Kroger parking lot when a four-door silver truck stopped behind her, another police report said. A man opened the rear passenger-side door and approached her. The report said he grabbed her backpack, pointed a small black revolver at her and said, "Give me all you got."
Despite a brief struggle, the man took the backpack, an iPad Mini and her credit and debit cards before returning to the truck and heading east on Kavanaugh Boulevard, according to the report.
The victim told police the robber was cleanshaven, black and approximately 5 feet 10 inches tall with a medium build. He had medium skin tone and short, dark hair and was wearing a gray hoodie and black shorts.
The robberies were similar in nature, McClanahan said, noting that sometimes a group will "get comfortable" robbing people in the same area.
He added that the information on the robberies has been sent to the downtown precinct patrol division and that those officers, whose district includes Hillcrest, will act on it accordingly.
"We're definitely aware of it," he said, adding that robbery trends have popped up recently in other parts of the city, such as west Little Rock.
According to Police Department data, robberies citywide are down 15 percent through Oct. 17 compared with the same period in 2015. There have been nine individual robberies during that time frame in District 50, which encompasses the Hillcrest neighborhood.
The Kroger in Hillcrest is equipped with security cameras facing toward the parking lot, and McClanahan said detectives would look at their footage.
The Saturday robberies came after a deliveryman was robbed Thursday night at the Hillcrest Kroger. The robber, a black man in his late 20s or early 30s, took the man's tablet, Arkansas Online previously reported.
Arkansas Online also reported that an armed robbery occurred outside River City Coffee, located at 2913 Kavanaugh Blvd. in Hillcrest, on Oct. 11. It was the same night three women were robbed outside the Kroger at 1900 N. Polk St. in the Heights.
In both those instances, a car pulled up to the victims and gunmen got out and robbed them. Police believe those robberies are related, and McClanahan said detectives are investigating if they're also linked to Saturday's robberies.
Jeremy Bragg, co-owner of River City Coffee, said the recent robberies haven't kept people at home. Customers are still out and about -- but with heightened awareness.
"You'll notice it more when it happens around you," Bragg said.
He knows the two customers who were robbed Oct. 11. The shop had closed at 9 p.m., and they were sitting in the chairs outside a half-hour later when the robbers pulled up.
"They were in the wrong place at the wrong time, and they shouldn't have [been]," Bragg said.
He said the "underlying institutional reasons" that cause people to commit crimes need to be addressed, including inadequate education and people's inability to make a living.
"There's only so much police can do," he added.
The two customers who were robbed that night still stop in at River City Coffee, and Bragg, who has been robbed at gunpoint, said they're doing OK after the traumatic experience.
People are concerned -- Bragg said he'll start attending Hillcrest neighborhood watch meetings -- about the spate of robberies, but they've so far kept patronizing Hillcrest businesses.
"It's not enough to keep them at home," he said.
While armed robberies happen all over Little Rock, they came as a shock to Hillcrest residents, given that much of the neighborhood's crime seems to be nonviolent, said Chris White, an organizer with the Hillcrest Neighborhood Watch.
He said the neighborhood often deals with nonviolent property crimes, like a person opening random car doors or someone taking delivered boxes from a resident's doorstep.
"When guns come into the picture, it just brings it to a new level," White said.
The group organized this past summer and has almost 300 people on its Facebook page, where they share information about crime in the neighborhood, he said.
Residents can take steps to prevent crimes, White said, by locking their car doors, keeping their residences well lit and encouraging their neighbors to keep an eye on their property when they go out of town.
Metro on 11/01/2016