Berkeley man pistol-whipped amid robbery on Shasta
The armed robbery took place on Shasta Road in the Berkeley Hills.
A man with a gun struck a Berkeley Hills resident in the head during a robbery Friday morning, authorities report.
The call originally came in to police as a possible carjacking at 10:40 a.m. in the 2700 block of Shasta Road near Cragmont Avenue.
The resident, a man in his 60s, had reportedly left his keys in his car to run back into the house to grab something he had forgotten, according to preliminary reports.
When he came back outside, he found a woman who had taken his keys out of his vehicle, Berkeley police said.
When the resident confronted the woman and tried to get his keys back, a man with a gun showed up, threatened to shoot the resident and struck him in the head.
The pair fled in a sedan before police arrived.
The resident was left with a cut on the head and was assessed by BFD at the scene, according to radio traffic reviewed by The Scanner.
Officers are actively investigating the case, said Berkeley police spokeswoman Officer Jessica Perry, and reviewing the city's Flock license plate reader cameras for pertinent information.
Berkeley has had at least seven other robberies so far this year, according to preliminary department data.
That's a substantial drop from last year's apparent lows in addition to Berkeley's historic average of about one robbery a day.
BPD's official annual crime report for 2024 is expected in March.
