Father, baby pistol-whipped during robbery, 3 men charged
During the robbery, the men pointed a gun at the baby's head and threatened to kill him if his father didn't comply, police wrote.
Three men who fled from police in a stolen car after pistol-whipping a father and his baby during a robbery in Berkeley have been charged with multiple felonies, court papers show.
One of the men ran across I-580 in an effort to evade a police officer who tackled him and took him into custody, according to court records.
During the robbery, the men pointed a gun at the baby's head and threatened to kill him if his father didn't turn over his property, police wrote in court papers.
The incident began Wednesday at about 1:30 p.m. when three men in a stolen Toyota committed an auto burglary on Telegraph Avenue, police said.
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About 15 minutes later, two of the men walked up behind a father who was carrying his baby near Shattuck Avenue and Bancroft Way, police wrote.
One of the men pistol-whipped the father, hitting the baby in the process, BPD said. Both sustained injuries, according to BPD.
The father turned over his cellphone, gold chain and gold teeth during the robbery, which was caught on surveillance tape, police wrote.
Emilie Raguso
The trio fled in the stolen car, which BPD police spotted on the Berkeley-Oakland border.
The driver eventually crashed in North Oakland near Pearl Street and Fairmount Avenue.
All three suspects were ultimately arrested after a block search, and police found a loaded gun with an extended magazine in the getaway car, according to court papers.
Police also found the victim's cellphone and gold chain in the getaway car, police wrote. The gold teeth are still missing.
The arrested men were identified as Stacy Tidwell, 23, Delaughn Hartzfield, 23, and Dante Richmond, 27.
Hartzfield is from Oakland, police said, while Tidwell and Richmond have no addresses on file.
On Thursday, the DA's office charged all three men with robbery, two counts of assault with force likely to produce great bodily injury, child abuse, criminal threats, auto burglary, two counts of evading police, carrying a concealed firearm, vehicle theft, and receiving stolen property, according to charging papers.
Tidwell, who has a prior burglary conviction, was also charged with being a felon in possession of a firearm.
Emilie Raguso
Tidwell "had been released from custody on two separate felony cases which are still pending," BPD wrote in court papers. "He was out on bail when he committed this robbery."
At least one of those pending cases was from Berkeley: The DA's office had charged Tidwell in January with breaking into about a dozen cars on and around College Avenue in the Elmwood district.
All three men remained in custody as of publication time, with court hearings set for next week.
