Man arrested in relation to hammer-smashed displays at Victoria jewelry store

Victoria police have arrested a man suspected to be the individual who smashed displays with a hammer at a jewelry store earlier this month.

Officers arrested the man from a housing facility in the 2500-block of Dowler Place on April 22. The man remains in custody and police will recommend that he face charges including armed robbery, assault with a weapon and breaching numerous court-ordered conditions.

The arrested man was wanted on six warrants for various other offences, VicPD said on Wednesday.

“Officers were already looking for the suspect on those warrants before they were identified as a suspect in the armed robbery,” VicPD spokesperson Bowen Osoko said in response to a Black Press Media question asking why the suspect wasn’t arrested in relation to the outstanding warrants earlier.

The arrest is in relation to an incident at a Victoria jewelry store on April 15, VicPD said.

Before police pulled videos that the department posted to social media, security camera footage showed a suspect walking through the store with multiple bags before they start to smash displays with a hammer and appear to pocket items. Multiple staff members in the store stepped in and tried to contain the man, some using chairs to do so, before the suspect continued to break more of the jewelry-containing counters.

Several people then converged on the suspect, who at times briefly gestures the hammer toward others, before the hooded individual fled the store.

VicPD initially said the suspect was able to take an expensive watch from the store, but Wednesday’s update said the individual fled “with a significant number of stolen items.”

READ: Suspect smashes displays with hammer at Victoria jewelry store