Warrants are out in Washington for a pair of teenaged boys allegedly concerned in an armed theft of a hashish dispensary within the state that left an worker useless, in addition to quite a few different armed robberies within the space.
The Chronicle newspaper reports that Montrell Hatfield, 16, and Marshon Jones, 15, “are needed in reference to a deadly capturing at a Tacoma marijuana dispensary and no less than 10 armed robberies at pot outlets in Pierce and King counties.”
On March 19, an worker at World of Weed in Tacoma, later recognized as 29-year-old Jordan Brown, was fatally shot in the neck.
The Chronicle, citing court docket paperwork, reported that, throughout the incident, “Hatfield fought with an worker behind the money register and Jones fatally shot the worker within the neck.”
“After ordering everyone to get on the bottom, Hatfield allegedly fired a warning shot into the ceiling and approached the supervisor and different workers. He handed them rubbish baggage and ordered them to place all the cash inside,” the newspaper reported. “Brown tossed the rubbish bag again at Hatfield, put his palms within the air and stepped backward, information say. Hatfield and Brown then started preventing on the bottom, based on witnesses and surveillance footage. Jones allegedly broke up the combat by capturing Brown within the neck. As the teenagers ran for the door, Jones instructed Hatfield ‘Don’t fear about them,’ information say.”
Prosecutors in Pierce County, Washington “have charged Hatfield with first-degree homicide and second-degree illegal possession of a firearm,” whereas “Jones has additionally been charged.” A “third man who acted as their lookout whereas they robbed the shops at gunpoint has not been recognized,” based on The Chronicle.
The newspaper mentioned that prosecutors “count on to file costs in opposition to the teenagers sooner or later for 4 marijuana dispensary robberies in Tacoma and one in Pierce County,” and that the teenagers are additionally “suspected in 5 comparable robberies in King County.”
On the identical day because the deadly theft, Hatfield and Jones allegedly robbed a dispensary in Seattle, and tried unsuccessfully to rob one other in Tacoma.
Armed robberies of hashish dispensaries have risen at an alarming price in Washington, which made historical past when it legalized leisure pot use for adults through a poll initiative in 2012. Final week, citing information from the in-state commerce group the Craft Hashish Coalition, the Seattle Times reported that “there have been round 67 armed robberies up to now in 2022,” up from 34 and 27 in 2021 and 2020 respectively.
The pattern has prompted lawmakers and different officers in Washington to sound the alarm over the vulnerability of hashish institutions, which usually have giant quantities of money readily available. Earlier this month, state treasurer Mike Pellicciotti traveled to Washington, D.C. to induce passage of the Secured and Truthful Enforcement Banking (SAFE) Act, which might enable banks to supply monetary providers to hashish companies––one thing the federal prohibition on pot at present precludes them from doing.
“You rob the locations the place the money is,” Pellicciotti mentioned, as quoted by native tv station KING5. “These robberies are tragic. However these robberies are additionally preventable.”
Final month, Republican state Sen. Jim Honeyford launched a invoice that will have added an additional yr to the jail sentence of anybody convicted of first or second diploma theft of a hashish store, the identical penalty that’s reserved for people who rob a pharmacy.
“When folks would ask the notorious financial institution robber Willie Sutton why he robbed banks, Sutton merely replied, ‘As a result of that’s the place the cash is.’ Effectively, that’s why folks rob marijuana retailers,” Honeyford mentioned on the time. “Attributable to federal banking guidelines, these companies are nearly solely cash-only operations, making them a goal for robberies and a magnet for criminals.”