CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — A violent crime wave is sweeping across parts of Corpus Christi.
Local businesses have been the target of several armed robberies recently.
On Feb. 17, police say two convenience stores were robbed, as well as a Motel 6. Other violent incidents have happened at a Dollar General and a South side game room.
“They were holding a gun, pointing a gun straight out and they told me to get on the floor this is a robbery,” said Ross Wagner, a security guard at Buena Suerte Game Room.
Corpus Christi Chief of Police Mike Markle, confirmed to us, they do believe those aggravated robberies were a group effort.
“This is organized. This is a group of folks who have planned what they are doing.” Markle said.
CCPD says they have arrested six adults and two juveniles in the last 24 hours on mostly unrelated charges, but they are all considered to be persons of interest in this big wave of armed robberies.
Markle says an operation Monday night led to several arrests.
"It's good ol’ fashioned police work with officers out in the field.” Markle said. “It's a sting operation, you have undercover officers, you have detectives, all hands and all departments on deck out there."
A press release put out Tuesday afternoon provided an update on the aggravated robberies, asking for assistance from the public. -- "Detectives have identified 19-year-old Jasmine Gonzales as a person they believe may have some information related to a number of the recent robberies."
Chief Markle says those robberies remain active investigations. They do believe more arrests are coming.
Despite the eight arrests already made, local business owners are fearful that this trend will continue.
"Opening a business, it's something scary to start and to begin but thinking that there is possibly people out there doing such crimes, it's horrible,” said Karina Ryan of Goo Goo Boujee Children’s Boutique.
As always, if you know anything about these robberies contact CCPD.
