SANTA ANA, Calif.—A detention hearing is scheduled for April 20 in Santa Ana federal court for a 23-year-old man accused of committing 31 robberies or attempted robberies in Los Angeles and Orange counties in a 3 1/2-week period.
Namir Malik Ali Greene was arrested April 17 following a chase that began in Ontario, according to Ciaran McEvoy, the public information officer for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California.
Greene made a brief appearance in Santa Ana federal court Tuesday and was ordered held in federal custody until the detention hearing, McEvoy said.
Greene is charged with violating the Hobbs Act—interference with commerce by robbery. If convicted, he would face a statutory maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison, McEvoy said.
According to the complaint filed Tuesday, Greene committed 31 robberies or attempted robberies of gas stations and convenience stores and at least two carjackings from March 21 through Saturday. During the robberies, Greene brandished a gun at the station and store employees, threatening to shoot them if they did not retrieve money for him from the cash register.
The complaint states that on April 4, Greene stole at least $2,554 from eight gas station stores in Hermosa Beach, Marina del Rey, Long Beach, Pico Rivera, Whittier, Montebello, Santa Monica, and Los Angeles’ Mid-City neighborhood and attempted to rob one more.
Greene stole at least $15,360 in cash during his robbery spree which primarily targeted stores in Los Angeles County, according to the complaint. He also carjacked a driver at a Fullerton gas station on March 21 and robbed an Anaheim gas station Saturday, approximately 90 minutes after carjacking a Honda Accord in Los Angeles which was used as his robbery getaway car, McEvoy said.
Police located the stolen Honda Accord in Ontario Monday and initiated a traffic stop. Greene instead tried to escape and a pursuit ensued, with Greene eventually losing control of the car, colliding with a curb, and disabling the vehicle, according to the affidavit. Greene ran from the disabled Honda Accord and was apprehended shortly afterward by law enforcement, who took him into custody.
Greene was identified from security camera footage, eyewitness testimony, his tattoos, his jewelry, and photographs in his Instagram account, according to the affidavit.
The robberies were investigated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Orange County Violent Crime Task Force, with assistance from the Los Angeles Police Department’s Robbery Homicide Division, and Ontario Police Department, McEvoy said.
