Yesterday, investigators with the Bellevue Police Department arrested two suspects that were being sought in connection with a violent street robbery that occurred in Bellevue last month.

On the evening of January 1st, Bellevue Police responded to a report of a robbery in downtown Bellevue near the intersection of NE 4th Street and 108th Avenue NE. Officers contacted the three female victims, who reported that they had just been violently robbed while they were walking down the sidewalk. The victims, two Japanese foreign exchange students and one resident of Japan who was in Bellevue on vacation, said that they were walking on NE 4th Street when they noticed several males were following them. The victims stated that, without warning, the suspects attacked them from behind, pushed them to the ground, and attempted to steal their purses. Two of the victims were violently dragged several feet down the sidewalk by the suspects’ attempts to steal their purses. The suspects stole two of the victims’ purses and ripped a necklace off of the neck of the third victims. The victims received minor injuries as a result of being dragged down the sidewalk, and were treated at the scene by medics.

Detectives with the Bellevue Police Major Crimes unit, working with the Special Operations Group, identified two suspects. Those two suspects were arrested yesterday without incidents. The suspects, a 20-year-old Renton resident and an 18-year-old Auburn resident, were booked into the King County Jail for investigation of robbery, and are expected to be charged in King County Superior Court. One of the suspects is believed to have been involved in at least one additional robbery that occurred in Seattle in January.