Pubdate: Sat, 15 Jan 2005
Source: Daily Review, The (Hayward, CA)
Copyright: 2005 ANG Newspapers
Contact:  http://www.mapinc.org/media/1410
Website: http://www.dailyreviewonline.com/
Author: Michelle Beaver, Correspondent
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?115 (Cannabis - California)

POT CLUB PATIENT TURNS TABLES ON ROBBERS

Victim Stabbed Both Attackers Before Losing His Cannabis Outside San 
Leandro Dispensary, Police Say

Alameda County Sheriff's officers arrested a man Friday after taking
another man into custody Wednesday following the robbery Wednesday of
a patron of a marijuana dispensary in unincorporated San Leandro.

Authorities say the robbery victim stabbed the two men, apparently in
self-defense.

The robbery victim's name has not been released. Investigators said he
legally bought medicinal marijuana at a health center and walked down
the street where two men who may have been watching the center threw
him to the ground and beat him, in an apparent attempt to take his
marijuana.

Authorities said the two made off with the man's backpack - but not
before suffering assorted stab wounds at the hand of their intended
victim.

Investigators say Joshua Gordon, 19, of San Leandro suffered an arm
laceration and the other man, Romel Brooks, 19, of Richmond, was
stabbed in the lung and went to the hospital.

Soon after the altercation, the alleged robbery victim called police
and said he had been robbed and might have wounded the
perpetrators.

An hour later, about 7 p.m., one of the robbery suspects, Brooks,
called police and said he had been attacked. Police questioned him at
San Leandro Hospital where, they say, he admitted his part in the robbery.

Officers were then led to the other suspect, Gordon, but did not offer
details as to why they suspected him.

"We put two and two together," said Alameda County Sheriff's
Department Sergeant Lloyd Leroy. "We had good reason to figure
that (Gordon) must have been one of the robbery suspects."

Gordon was later spotted in a lineup by the reported victim. Police
served him with a search warrant for his Ashland Village apartment
Friday.

"We found a bloody sweat shirt with a stab mark and also some stuff we
weren't looking for, like cocaine," Leroy said.

The robbery is under investigation.
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake