A 21-year-old South Los Angeles man has been arrested for allegedly committing a series of armed robberies in parking lots in Los Angeles and Orange Counties, including one incident in which he is accused of shooting a victim twice outside the South Coast Plaza shopping mall.
The federal criminal complaint against Oshae Pollard, a resident of the Manchester Square neighborhood, was announced on Thursday by the Justice Department. He faces charges of interference with commerce by robbery and use of a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence. Pollard was arrested on Wednesday.
His arraignment is scheduled for Dec. 23 in the U.S. District Court in Santa Ana, Calif. Pollard’s attorney, Adithya Mani, a deputy federal public defender, could not be reached immediately Monday to comment.
If convicted of all charges, Pollard would face a statutory maximum sentence of life in federal prison.
To address the different forms of retail theft, organizations like the National Retail Federation and the Retail Industry Leaders Association have taken a more public stance about the issue in the past few years. For example, the National District Attorneys Association had its second annual “Store Walk” initiative earlier this year to tackle organized retail crime, habitual theft and its impact on communities.
Between Aug. 25 and Sept. 22, Pollard allegedly targeted victims in parking lots in southern California, according to an affidavit that was filed with the federal complaint. He is accused of at least three armed robberies and one attempted armed robbery.
Pollard has not been charged in the July 2 attempted robbery outside of Fashion Island that resulted in Patricia McKay, a 68-year-old New Zealand tourist, being struck by a sedan that was being driven by one of the three suspects. Those individuals were arrested in July.
The first robbery that Pollard is alleged to have committed occurred in the evening of Aug. 25 at the Hustler Casino parking lot in Gardena, where Pollard allegedly pushed a victim to the ground, pulled on the victim’s purse and then placed a semiautomatic pistol in her mouth — breaking her teeth in the process — and threatened her life. After a witness started yelling, Pollard grabbed the victim’s purse — stealing between $1,000 and $2,000 — retreated to a car and drove away. The following morning Pollard and an accomplice allegedly robbed a taxi driver, who was sitting in the parking lot of a Winchell’s Donut House in Carson, and struck him in the face.
That same night Pollard and an accomplice allegedly approached two victims standing near their Rolls-Royce and Ferrari vehicles. Pollard is accused of pointing a semiautomatic pistol at the victim standing near the Rolls-Royce and demanding all the victim’s cash. The victim was said to have handed over a luxury watch, a wallet and the keys to the Rolls-Royce. When the other victim started the Ferrari to try to drive away, Pollard allegedly fired one round into the car that barely missed the victim. The victim then drove to a nearby gas station and asked the gas station clerk to call the police, who later recovered one 9mm shell casing from the scene. The total value of the items stolen was approximately $44,000.
Nearly a month later on Sept. 22, Pollard allegedly approached a victim as the individual was getting into their car parked in the parking lot of the South Coast Plaza shopping mall in Costa Mesa. Pollard was said to have demanded, “’Give me the watch. Give me the ring. Give me the car,’” and later threatened to shoot the victim, according to the affidavit. When the victim didn’t comply, Pollard shot the victim in the left hand, and then in the left thigh, as the victim started to remove his watch. After a brief fight, the victim got back in his car and drove away. Pollard was said to have run to a Kia Forte and drove away.
The investigation involved the U.S. Attorney’s office, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and the Orange County District Attorney’s office. In a statement, Kimberly Edds, director of public affairs for the Orange County District Attorney’s office, said, “These are crimes of violence that not only terrorize the intended targets, but our community as a whole, making shoppers think twice about whether a trip to the mall will erupt in gunfire.”
