In the last month, there have been 14 robberies in the city of Galveston, according to the Galveston Police Department.
While police say there’s nothing definitive connecting the crimes, there have been some similarities: Two or more masked men enter a building and demand cash; they act quickly and are out of the building within three or four minutes, before police can arrive.
Abdal Khan works at a local Chevron gas station where masked men robbed him at gunpoint Monday morning.
“He pulled a gun on my head,” Khan said. “He hit me in my gut.”
The suspect demanded whatever cash Khan had and then made him look away as he collected the money.
There was only one thought running through Khan’s head: “He’s going to kill me now.”
A shot never came, and the suspect, who had at least one other person with him, fled the scene.
Khan is one of the latest people in Galveston to be a victim of a robbery.
Despite the frequency and similarities in the recent string of robberies, investigators don’t believe all were the work of the same people or group, said Galveston Police Department spokesman Xavier Hancock.
“At this point, there’s no connection between them,” Hancock said. “It may be that one spawns the next.”
Despite the spike, Hancock said there were fewer reported robberies in 2018 than there were in 2017.
In response to the robberies, the police department has increased the number of officers on street patrol in the hopes of deterring more people from preying on local businesses, Hancock said.
“We’re being more visible to hopefully prevent any more of these from happening,” Hancock said.
